The legacy of Shinzo Abe: a Japan divided about nuclear weapons
Posted: 25th August 2022
By Sayuri Romei | August 24, 2022
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation due to health concerns on August 28, 2020. Shinzo Abe was assassinated while giving a speech at an election rally on July 8, 2022 in Nara, Japan. (Photo by Franck Robichon – Pool/Getty Images)
On August 1, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida became the first Japanese leader to ever attend the Review Conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is taking place this month at UN headquarters in New York. Kishida, whose family hails from Hiroshima, is one of the very few voices within Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), to consistently emphasize the humanitarian impacts of the use of nuclear weapons and Japan’s unwavering commitment to nuclear disarmament. This contrasts with his most-recognized predecessor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose assassination on July 8, 2022, shocked the entire world.