A year later, Abe’s assassination continues to impact Japan’s politics

Pedestrians are silhouetted against a large screen showing an image of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in the Akihabara district of Tokyo on July 8, 2022.

Mr Abe was at the forefront of Japanese politics, pulling strings as a political titan and kingmaker before he died.

PHOTO: AFP

Walter Sim

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TOKYO – The assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving yet polarising leader, continues to reverberate in the country’s corridors of power – from Tokyo’s political hub of Nagatacho to the streets of Shimonoseki, the western city that was both his home town and electoral district.

He was a backbencher when he was killed a year ago today,

after stepping down as prime minister in 2020 due to ill health.

Yet such was his influence that the 100-member faction he led in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is still rudderless. The LDP faction led by current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is just 46-strong.

A year later, Abe’s assassination continues to impact Japan’s politics

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