TIME has a good article about Japanese political dynasties.

Meet the candidates vying to lead this Asian nation: one is the son of a former Prime Minister, the other is a grandson of another former Prime Minister. The man they would replace, who announced his resignation on Sept. 12 after less than a year in power, is yet another former Premier’s grandson. And the top man before that? Yup, another scion of a political dynasty.

Is this version of Family Affair unfolding in Bangladesh or the Philippines? Think again. It’s Japan, long held up as the paragon of a mature Asian democracy, yet which continues to serve up political leaders distinguishable only by subtleties of grey in their ideological coloration. Yasuo Fukuda, the leading candidate to replace Shinzo Abe as Japan’s next PM, and Fukuda’s rival, Taro Aso, appear to be trying to differentiate themselves as the Sept. 23 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) election approaches. Aso is pegged as a tough-talking hawk, Fukuda a diplomatic dove. But both are products of a political system dominated not by people with the right ideas, but by people with the right names. “Second- or third-generation politicians tend to learn the techniques of the family business,” says Hirotada Asakawa, a Tokyo-based political analyst, “without having any strong passions about what they want to do for the country.”

It also has some sobering thoughts about what we can expect (more of the same) from Japan’s future leaders.

Doing what Papa or Grandpa preached would be fine if it made sense to Japanese voters. But look at what happened to Abe, grandson of a nationalist ex-Premier. He blamed his resignation on the opposition for having stymied his efforts to continue Japanese refueling of American ships involved in the U.S.-led war on terror. Abe, like his grandfather, was intent on strengthening Japan’s military ties with the U.S. But the Japanese public had already deserted Abe, not because of his foreign policy but over his inability to address fundamental economic issues. Harping on a faraway military operation only made Abe appear more out of touch.

In fact, the majority of Japanese oppose the country’s naval mission. Yet Aso and Fukuda, like Abe, both support extending Japanese refueling, and they have other things in common. Their family political DNA runs deep. Aso’s grandfather was Shigeru Yoshida, a China-bashing leader who called for Japan to rely on American military protection so it could focus on developing an export-led economy. Fast-forward half a century and Aso, a former Foreign Minister, staunchly supports the U.S.-Japan security alliance, while antagonizing China by defending visits of Japanese statesmen to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are memorialized. Meanwhile, Fukuda’s father was an LDP stalwart who while PM promoted diplomatic relations with Asia through “heart-to-heart” dialogue. And guess what? That’s what Fukuda, a former Chief Cabinet Secretary, peddles himself as today: a consensus-driven political insider who opposes Yasukuni visits because they alienate Japan’s neighbors. The country’s enormous public debt? A scandal-ridden pension system? A bloated bureaucracy? Neither Fukuda nor Aso has dedicated much campaign time to such issues.