Akie Abe meets with Kishida

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:34 JST, July 22, 2022

Akie Abe, the wife of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for about 10 minutes Thursday to express her gratitude to Kishida for attending her husband’s funeral.

Kishida reportedly once again expressed his condolences to Akie during their meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Special Adviser to the Cabinet Takaya Imai, a former special adviser and executive secretary to Shinzo Abe while he was prime minister, also attended the meeting.

Earlier Thursday, Akie attended a meeting of the Abe faction at the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party. According to a meeting attendee, Akie said her husband had many things he had wanted to achieve as leader of the faction. She urged the faction members to carry on his work.

Akie also reportedly said she had not considered standing in the by-election to fill Abe’s House of Representatives seat in Yamaguchi Constituency No. 4.