TOKYO: Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso, born into a prominent industrialist family, has long projected a tough, streetwise image, accentuated by his gruff demeanor and trademark husky voice.

His colorful life has taken the scion of a mining empire from trading diamonds in Africa to shooting clay pigeons at the Olympics and, since September, to the top government post of the world's second largest economy.

But the cigar-smoking 68-year-old, who is widely expected to lead his long-ruling conservative party to defeat next month, has also projected a vulnerable side, once confiding that life can be lonely at the top.