Tag - shinzo-abe

 
 

SHINZO ABE

Mourners offer flowers and prayers for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot while campaigning in 2022, during a ceremony marking one year after his death, in Tokyo in July 2023.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 13, 2025
Trial of suspect in murder of ex-PM Abe set to begin in October
The trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, 44, will commence on Oct. 28.
Printed copies of the newly disclosed documents related to the dubious sale of state-owned land to Moritomo Gakuen, on Wednesday in the city of Osaka
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 12, 2025
More Moritomo Gakuen papers disclosed to widow of Finance Ministry official
The ministry intends to gradually disclose all the documents, which total more than 170,000 pages.
Akie Abe (right), the widow of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 30, 2025
Putin praises Abe, saying the late prime minister wanted a peace treaty
No treaty was ever signed between the two countries as they could not resolve a dispute over what is known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
Hakubun Shimomura speaks as a witness at a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 28, 2025
LDP's Shimomura denies he ordered kickbacks to resume in 2022
In a hearing in February, a former chief accountant of a now-defunct faction said "a faction executive" asked for the kickback system to restart in July 2022.
Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's newly appointed agriculture minister, arrives at the ministry building in Tokyo on Wednesday. He replaced Taku Eto, who quit after saying he’s never needed to buy rice, a comment that angered many people.
EDITORIALS
May 23, 2025
Rice price uproar intensifies ruling party's election fears
When the remarks triggered a predictable and understandable backlash, Eto explained that he was trying to make a joke.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2025
Pension bill makes it to parliament after two-month delay
Internal resistance from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party toward certain proposals in the draft bill led to the delay.
Aso serves as the head of the LDP's task force on Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
JAPAN / Politics
May 14, 2025
Conservative heavyweights join forces in LDP panel on Indo-Pacific
The panel has prompted speculation it could serve as an occasion to coalesce support against the government in the upcoming months.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meets with Vietnamese President Luong Cuong in Hanoi on April 28. Ishiba’s visit to Vietnam and the Philippines highlighted Japan’s enduring Indo-Pacific strategy amid rising regional uncertainty.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 8, 2025
Japan’s durable 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific' strategy brings stability
So while Ishiba’s visit to Southeast Asia may have just seemed like another round of trips during a holiday week, they were emblematic of something much more than that.
The Tokyo District Court is expected to present its decision regarding the dissolution the Unification Church on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 23, 2025
Tokyo court may decide on Unification Church dissolution on Tuesday
The fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shed light on the Unification Church's controversial practices.
The logo of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, better known as the Unification Church, is seen at the entrance of its Japan branch headquarters in Tokyo in October 2023.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Mar 15, 2025
Unification Church faces dissolution in Japan
The dissolution would remove the church's tax-exempt status while branding the organization a harmful entity.
Lower House Budget Committee Chairperson Jun Azumi (center) and others at the committee's executive meeting on Tuesday in the Diet building
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025
Ex-LDP accountant to testify on slush funds on Thursday
Junichiro Matsumoto served as chief accountant of the now-defunct faction once headed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shows a picture of him with U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint news conference at the White House on Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 12, 2025
Ishiba navigates the low expectations for Japan’s foreign policy
The summit proceeded well enough, but some will argue that this is only because Ishiba had a low bar for his engagement.
Masako Akagi, wife of late Toshio Akagi, holds Toshio's picture and his glasses during a news conference in Osaka on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 7, 2025
Government accepts ruling backing disclosure of Moritomo documents
Moritomo Gakuen was once linked to the wife of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Despite numerous past meetings between U.S. and Japanese leaders, Shigeru Ishiba's relationship with Donald Trump is expected to be awkward, lacking the rapport the U.S. president had with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 4, 2025
Ishiba will finally meet Trump, but expectations need to be kept low
His long-time rival Shinzo Abe's relationship with Trump is the ideal but an unfair comparison.
According to the National Police Agency, 99% of speech venues during last year’s House of Representatives election had baggage inspections carried out.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025
Election speech sites step up security after failed 2023 Kishida attack
The National Police Agency has applied greater pressure on speech organizers to enforce security measures following the 2023 failed attack on former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and members of the Liberal Democratic Party take a group photo at the party's headquarters in Tokyo during the Oct. 27 Lower House elections.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2025
Adjusting to the new normal in Japanese politics
The upheaval of the past year has forced a fundamental rethinking of how political watchers must observe things in Tokyo
China has increased provocations against Japan under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's weak leadership, exploiting political instability to push its agenda, including military incursions, cyberattacks and other forms of coercion.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 14, 2025
China seizes opportunities amid Ishiba’s weak leadership
China is also no longer hesitant to send its aircraft carrier group through narrow straits in the southernmost Nansei Islands to conduct drills.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (left) and his wife, Melania (right), pose for a photo with Akie Abe, the widow of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday in this image posted on Melania Trump's X social media account.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 16, 2024
Akie Abe, widow of slain prime minister, meets with Trump
Her meeting has raised some eyebrows for coming before that of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who was unable to meet Trump last month despite numerous requests.
U.S. first lady Melania Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie Abe, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in May 2019
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2024
Widow of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes to meet with Trump
Akie Abe's late husband was once dubbed the “Trump Whisperer” for his close ties with the former U.S. president.
Sanae Takaichi (left) celebrates Shigeru Ishiba’s victory in becoming the head of the Liberal Democratic Party along with then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo in September. Takaichi appears to be the only woman in any party who is close to breaking the glass ceiling to become the nation’s first female leader. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 26, 2024
The derailing of potential female prime ministers
Sanae Takaichi stands as the closest woman to breaking the glass ceiling and becoming Japan's first female prime minister.

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