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.
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