For those of you who are actually interested in the politics of the thing, Reuters has profiles of various potential candidates for Japanese Prime Minister.

As cool as it might be to talk about having an otaku Prime Minister, Taro Aso actually doesn’t sound like a great choice by my standards (and it has nothing to do with the idea that government interference in anime/manga could be bad, i swear): he’s a bit of a traditionalist and supports the male-only tradition of Japan’s emperor-hood. Also:

“He appeals to fellow fans of “manga” comics, but has stirred controversy with verbal blunders.”
>> verbal blunders
>> verbal blunders
>> verbal blunders

…Hmmm…

The other possible candidates include finance minister Sadazaku Tanigaki, who wants to raise taxes; former “shadow foreign minister” Yasuo Fukuda, who could have been successor to Koizumi instead of Abe had he not dropped out; conservative foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura, and…Junichiro Koizumi!?

Yes, this article says there’s been talk of the Lionheart himself coming back and challenging, but it reads more like wishful thinking on the part of voters. Of the options listed, Fukuda seems the most promising to me, with talk of working on friendship between Asian countries…but I don’t know the first thing about Japanese politics. It’ll be interesting to watch, whatever happens.