Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was named one of the most influential people of 2014 by Time Magazine on Thursday, along with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai.

"If Japan wanted to tell the world it was going to stage an economic comeback, electing Shinzo Abe Prime Minister might have been the best way to do it," wrote U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in a brief article describing Abe's impact.

Lew wrote that the Prime Minister's set of economic policies known as "Abenomics" have given the country "reason to believe a lasting recovery is finally in sight," but that success ultimately rests on changes such as structural reform and entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement that have yet to occur.

Also on the list were other notables, mostly from the worlds of government, business and art and entertainment, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and singer Miley Cyrus.