Shinzo Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, left, Senator Prescott Bush, the president’s grandfather, in shorts with club, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, right, in an undated photo Mr. Abe gave to Mr. Bush.
On Thursday, Mr. Abe took the president up on his offer, arriving in Washington with his wife, Akie, for a two-day stay that is as much about fostering personal ties as diplomatic ones.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Abe have at least one thing in common: each comes from a political dynasty. Mr. Abe's grandfather was prime minister; his father, foreign minister. Mr. Bush's grandfather was a senator; his father, the 41st president. But the two leaders are not nearly as close as President Bush was with Mr. Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi , whose flamboyant personality and love of Elvis Presley 's music captivated Mr. Bush.
So, with an eye toward a Japanese public that expects the new prime minister to get the same treatment as the old, the White House is taking pains to turn alliance into friendship, allowing the leaders plenty of time to talk substance — trade, global warming and nuclear disarmament in North Korea, among other matters — but also time to do a little male bonding.
On Friday, the two leaders will head to Camp David, where they will hold their meetings — and greet a small pool of reporters, not the usual White House herd — in the peaceful setting of Mr. Bush's presidential cabin in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland. Mr. Bush likes to ride his mountain bike there; Mr. Abe is not much of a bike rider, but he is a baseball fan, and Japanese officials said Thursday that they were hoping the prime minister and the president would get a chance to toss a ball around. It would be important symbolism, if only because Mr. Koizumi was at Camp David so much.
The Bush-Koizumi bond culminated with the ultimate buddy road trip: a jaunt down rock 'n' roll memory lane to Graceland, the Presley manse in Memphis, where the two frolicked amid gold records and gold lamé suits.
For Mr. Abe, who was chief cabinet secretary to Mr. Koizumi, and whose popularity at home is not nearly as high as that of his predecessor, that is a tough act to follow.
“Abe-san both has a great burden and a great benefit,” said Kurt Campbell, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The benefit is that U.S.-Japan relations have been taken to another level, given the closeness of the relationship that existed between Koizumi and the president. But the burden is that he is following in the footsteps of a relationship that would be difficult to replicate,” Mr. Campbell said.
Part of that is simply timing. Mr. Koizumi and Mr. Bush got to know each other early in Mr. Bush's presidency, before the White House was dragged down by the war in Iraq, and before efforts to end the North Korean nuclear buildup put a slight strain on United States relations with Japan.
At the same time, Mr. Abe did not help himself with Mr. Bush when he publicly denied that the Japanese military had coerced women into sexual slavery during World War II.
Mr. Abe subsequently explained himself in a phone call with the president. According to a Japanese official, he raised the issue in his meeting on Thursday with Congressional leaders, saying he “wholeheartedly sympathized with former ‘comfort women,' ” as they were euphemistically known.
The White House has little interest in highlighting such differences. Japan is an important contributor to the rebuilding of Iraq, and Mr. Abe, like Mr. Koizumi before him, has a strong vision for a democratic Japan — a vision that dovetails nicely with Mr. Bush's freedom agenda.
The prime minister's sense of history may also appeal to Mr. Bush; Mr. Abe's grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, advocated re-establishing Japan as a full security partner with the United States at a time when that idea was hugely unpopular, and was eventually forced to resign over it.
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