All three candidates vying to be the next prime minister come from prominent political families, but none has a pedigree approaching that of Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the apparent shoo-in to replace Junichiro Koizumi.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>His politically blue blood is one of the reasons he is so popular, but at the same time his forebears, particularly his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, who was prime minister from 1957 to 1960 and later known as a 'specter' pulling strings from behind the scenes, nurtured his conservative stance.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>But it also has created a dilemma for Abe, with his personal affection for Kishi forcing him to take an ambiguous stance on Japanese leaders' responsibility for World War II.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>From the start Abe has been way out in front of the other candidates -- Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki -- and is widely expected to cruise to victory in the Sept. 20 election to pick the next president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and therefore become prime minister.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'He is popular because of his modest attitude as well as his belief that he should stick to his convictions as a politician. He learned that belief from his grandfather,' said Fukashi Horie, a former political science professor at Keio University and now president of Shobi University.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Abe's persistent advocacy of revising the pacifist Constitution was reflected in the policy platform he announced last Friday when he officially said he was running in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'The Constitution was written when Japan was occupied,' Abe said. 'So I mean for the Japanese people to join hands in setting our future course.'</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>His grandfather Kishi, known as a specter because of the political power he still wielded after resigning as prime minister, actively promoted adopting a Constitution written by Japanese.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Kishi is also known for his efforts to enact the security treaty between Japan and the United States -- called the 'anpo' treaty in Japanese -- amid strident and often violent opposition.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The pact was a revised version of the former treaty, signed in 1951, that allowed the U.S. armed forces to stay in Japan but did not oblige the U.S. to defend Japan. Under the terms of the new treaty, Japan and the U.S. must cooperate in defending Japan.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'He –

looked very much influenced by his grandfather in terms of foreign policy and the anpo," said Hirotsugu Akiu, a classmate of Abe's at Seikei University.

When Abe was 6 years old, he often visited his grandfather's residence in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, where rioters opposed to the new treaty set fire to pieces of paper and flung them into the garden.

"Since I was a kid, I have known that my grandfather was called the 'embodiment of conservativeness' and 'a wire puller in the political world,' " Abe wrote in his recently published book "Utsukushii kuni e" ("To the Beautiful Country"). He continued, "I felt repelled, so that's why I feel rather close to conservatism."

Abe also wrote in the book: "I was proud of his calm attitude" because his grandfather appeared very sincere and thought about the future of the country constantly.