Japan’s Takaichi Brings Portrait of Shinzo Abe to Ise Jingu Shrine, in New Year’s Visit as PM

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:17 JST, January 6, 2026

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visited Ise Jingu shrine on Monday holding a portrait of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A New Year visit to Ise Jingu is a tradition for prime ministers. During the Abe administration in 2015, Takaichi, then Internal Affairs and Communications Minister, accompanied Abe on his visit.

Abe guided world leaders around Ise Jingu at the 2016 Group of Seven Ise-Shima Summit. Takaichi brought along a photograph from the summit, in addition to the portrait.

When she crossed the Ujibashi bridge, the entrance to the Naiku area of the shrine, she held the portrait of Abe in front of her and “showed [him] both ends of the bridge,” Takaichi said at a New Year’s press conference held after the visit. “I wanted to convey my feelings of gratitude that ‘we were able to visit together again.’”