Nobusuke Kishi in the context of "Purge (occupied Japan)"

Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese statesman who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, serving for nearly nine years.

Born in Tokyo, Abe was a member of the Satō–Kishi–Abe family as the son of LDP politician Shintaro Abe and grandson of prime minister Nobusuke Kishi. He graduated from Seikei University and attended the University of Southern California before working in industry and party posts, and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993. Abe was LDP secretary-general from 2003 to 2004 and Chief Cabinet Secretary under Junichiro Koizumi from 2005 to 2006, when he replaced Koizumi as prime minister. Abe became Japan's youngest post-war premier, and the first born after World War II. A staunch conservative and member of the Nippon Kaigi organization, which holds negationist views on Japanese history, Abe took right-wing stances including downplaying atrocities in textbooks, denying government coercion in the recruitment of comfort women during the war, and seeking revision of Article 9 of the Constitution. In 2007, he initiated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with the US, Australia, and India, aimed at resisting China's rise as a superpower. He resigned as premier that year due to his government's unpopularity and illness.

The Japan Democratic Party (日本民主党, Nihon Minshutō) was a conservative political party in Japan. Existing from 1954 to 1955, the party was founded by Ichirō Hatoyama, former foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and future Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. The party was formed on 24 November 1954, by merging Ichiro Hatoyama's group which left the Liberal Party in 1953, and the Shigemitsu-led Kaishintō party. On 15 November 1955, the Japan Democrats merged with the Liberals to form the modern Liberal Democratic Party.

Eisaku Satō (佐藤 栄作, Satō Eisaku; 27 March 1901 – 3 June 1975) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972. He was the third longest-serving and second longest-uninterrupted–serving Japanese prime minister. Satō is best remembered for securing the return of Okinawa in 1972, and for winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, which stirred controversy. He was a former elite bureaucrat like his elder brother Nobusuke Kishi and a member of the Yoshida school like Hayato Ikeda.

Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Satō was a member of the Satō–Kishi–Abe family and the younger brother of prime minister Nobusuke Kishi. Satō graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1924 and joined the Ministry of Railways. After the war, he entered the National Diet in 1949 as a member of the Liberal Party, and served in a series of cabinet positions under Shigeru Yoshida, including posts and telecommunications minister from 1951 to 1952, construction minister from 1952 to 1953, and chief cabinet secretary from 1953 to 1954. Satō later joined the Liberal Democratic Party and became finance minister from 1958 to 1960 under Nobusuke Kishi and international trade and industry minister from 1961 to 1962 under Hayato Ikeda.

Takeo Fukuda (福田 赳夫, Fukuda Takeo; 14 January 1905 – 5 July 1995) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978.

Born in Gunma Prefecture and educated at Tokyo Imperial University, Fukuda served as an official in the Ministry of Finance for two decades before entering politics. He was first elected to the Diet in 1952, and served as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries minister in 1959–1960 under Nobusuke Kishi, as head of the party's political affairs section under Hayato Ikeda, and as finance minister (1965–1966, 1968–1971) and foreign minister (1971–1972) under Eisaku Satō, becoming his protégé. Fukuda's political life was marked by a rivalry with Kakuei Tanaka, who succeeded Satō as prime minister in 1972 and under whom Fukuda served as finance minister from 1973 to 1974. As prime minister from 1976, Fukuda formulated the Fukuda Doctrine, which pledged trust and cooperation with Asian countries, and concluded the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China in 1978. He was succeeded as premier in 1978 by Masayoshi Ōhira.

The Satō–Kishi–Abe family is an extremely prominent political family in Japan. It has produced three prime ministers: Nobusuke Kishi, Eisaku Satō, and Shinzo Abe, who combined have served as Prime Minister of Japan for over 20 years. Kishi led the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) in its first election as a combined party. All politicians from the Satō-Kishi-Abe family continue to be associated with the LDP today