In an effort to enhance popular support for the party, the LDP presidential campaign took advantage of a heightened sense of crisis centered on Japan’s territorial disputes with Russia, South Korea, and, most recently and alarmingly, China. The party chose as its leader former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is known as the hardest of hardliners on nationalist matters, but who is also widely perceived as having acted irresponsibly when he abruptly gave up his premiership in 2007, after only one year in office, due to health problems.
为了增加民众支持度，自民党党首竞选活动充分利用了日本与俄罗斯、韩国以及（最近也是最紧张的）中国的领土纠纷。自民党选举前首相安倍晋三为新党首，他是出了名的民族主义强硬派，但人们普遍认为，他在2007年问鼎首相宝座不足一年时便因健康问题而突然辞职是不负责任之举。他的回归让日本民众有一种奇怪的昨日重现的感觉。