Abe 'must change' to build ties (2)

During the campaign, he adopted a harsh tone in his foreign policy statements, especially on relations with China amid tension over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

He vowed to increase defense spending and revitalize a security alliance with the United States that is widely thought to have drifted under current Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration.

Abe also wants to loosen the limits of a 1947 pacifist constitution on the military.

The LDP will "learn the lessons of the Democratic Party of Japan", a specialist in Japanese affairs said.

Abe will put US ties at the top of his agenda, and this is why he will travel to Washington early in his new term, said Lu Yaodong, a specialist in Japanese affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The LDP will go further than the Democratic Party of Japan to fan territorial disputes and try to contain China, Lu said.

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