Photo/Illutration A visitor takes a photograph in front of a photo of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Zojoji temple in Tokyo on July 8. (Shinnosuke Ito)

A year after a gunman ended his life, Shinzo Abe casts a long shadow over the nation’s political landscape.

Abe served two stints as prime minister, making him the nation’s longest-serving leader. As the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, he was in power for a total of eight years and eight months.

Abe was 67 years old when he was shot July 8, 2022, while giving a campaign speech in Nara city.

He was a leading figure among the LDP’s conservative politicians.

Many lawmakers who were close to him tend to promote a conservative political agenda, saying that if he were alive today, Abe would have things done this way.

LDP lawmakers who proudly wear the imprint of Abe’s political mantle even walked away when the Diet’s two chambers voted for a law to promote understanding of LGBT people in June.

Conservatives took a stand when around 60 LDP lawmakers discussed the proposed legislation at the party headquarters on May 12.

“Abe was concerned that society would be divided over this bill,” one opponent said. “I will resist it all the way down the line.”

The participants included around 20 members of the LDP faction formerly led by Abe that still bears his name.

The meeting lasted for more than two hours and ended with the LDP effectively approving a revised bill that reflected key demands from conservatives.

Even so, die-hard opponents stormed Yoshitaka Shindo, acting chairman of the party’s Policy Research Council, when he sought approval from the participants.

“I can no longer hold my head up high before Abe, who was my mentor (in politics),” a lawmaker of the Abe faction said after the meeting.

Although Abe was cautious about advocating the rights of sexual minorities, Koichi Hagiuda, a close aide, said he was not necessarily opposed to a law outlining the nation’s stance on LGBT issues.

The LDP’s policy proposals for the Upper House election in 2016, when Abe was prime minister, said the party aims to “establish a law sponsored by lawmakers to promote a broad and correct understanding about sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Abe included the proposal in subsequent election pledges.

“If (Abe) had been opposed to the establishment of a law, he would not have written it in campaign promises,” said Hagiuda, who negotiated with opposition parties over the LGBT law as chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council.

The post of prime minister is now occupied by Fumio Kishida, a man some regard as overly rigid in following Abe’s policy goals.

“I have been able to take charge of the government thanks to the foundation built by Abe,” Kishida said at a meeting held in Tokyo on July 8 after a memorial service on the first anniversary of Abe’s murder. “I will firmly pass the baton I took over to the next generation.”

Kishida has forged ahead with Abe’s pet policies, namely acquiring the capability to strike enemy bases, engaging in a massive military buildup and reinstating nuclear power generation as a key element in the nation’s energy strategy. As a result, his administration has been relatively stable.

“Kishida appears to be trying to succeed Abe’s right-leaning philosophies, but Abe was a realist, too,” said a veteran LDP lawmaker.

Unlike Kishida, Abe was open to policy changes and compromise to a certain degree, the lawmaker said.

A former Cabinet minister from the Abe faction warned against a tendency to view Abe as a godlike figure.

“When someone touches on the need to rebuild government finances just a little, he or she is accused of criticizing his ‘Abenomics’ economic policies,” the lawmaker said. “It is dangerous to try to deify Abe.”

Abe’s influence remains strong in the LDP partly because more than one-third of its 262 Lower House members were elected to the chamber for the first time when he was prime minister.

With 100 members, the Abe faction is the largest LDP intraparty clique.

“We have kept the name of Abe in the faction’s name to maintain our force,” said Hakubun Shimomura, acting chairman of the Abe faction.

(This article was compiled from reports by Kohei Morioka and Haruna Shiromi.)

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