Shintaro Abe

Early life and education

Shintaro Abe was born on April 29, 1924, in Tokyo, the only child of politician and member of Parliament Kan Abe. He was raised in his father's home prefecture of Yamaguchi from soon after his birth. His mother was an army general's daughter.

Personal life

Abe married Yoko Kishi, daughter of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, in 1951. His third son, Nobuo Kishi, was adopted by his brother-in-law shortly after birth, won a House of Representatives seat in 2012 and was appointed Minister of Defense in 2020. He was from Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Career

After graduating from high school in 1944 during World War II, Abe entered a naval aviation school and volunteered to become a kamikaze pilot. The war ended before he could undergo the required training. In 1949 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, Shintaro Abe began his career as a political reporter for Mainichi Shimbun.

Abe formally entered the political sphere in 1956, when he started working as a legislative aide of his father in-law, then-foreign minister Nobusuke Kishi. He became an aide to the Prime Minister when Kishi assumed the premiership the following year. In 1958, Abe contested and won the House of Representatives seat once held by his father.

He led a major LDP faction, the conservative Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai, whose reins he took from former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda in July 1986, and held a variety of ministerial and party posts, the former of which included Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and Minister of International Trade and Industry. During this period, he was seen as a young leader groomed for the future prime ministry. In November 1982, he was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of the then-prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, replacing Yoshio Sakurauchi. His term lasted until 1986.

Abe was a top contender to succeed Nakasone as prime minister in 1987, until he stepped aside for Noboru Takeshita, head of a powerful rival faction. Then, he was given the post of secretary general of the party in 1987. In 1988, his chances of becoming prime minister some time in the near future were again thwarted when his name became associated with the Recruit-Cosmos insider-trading stock scandal, which brought down Takeshita and forced Abe to resign as the party's secretary general in December 1988.

Death

Shintaro Abe was hospitalized in January 1991. He died at Tokyo's Juntendo University Hospital on May 15, 1991, aged 67. The cause of death was not officially announced, although various reports point to cancer, liver failure, or heart failure.

Honours

From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Order of the Paulownia Flowers

References

References

1. Yates, Ronald E.. (May 16, 1991). "Shintaro Abe, 67". Chicago Tribune.
2. (December 17, 2012). "Profile: Shinzo Abe". BBC.
3. [https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/16/obituaries/shintaro-abe-japanese-politician-and-ex-cabinet-aide-dies-at-67.html Shintaro Abe, Japanese Politician And Ex-Cabinet Aide, Dies at 67], by James Sterngold, The New York Times, May 16, 1991
4. (November 30, 1981). "Japan's cabinet shuffled". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
5. (May 16, 1991). "Shintaro Abe; Ex-Japanese Foreign Minister". Los Angeles Times.
6. Sterngold, James. (May 16, 1991). "Shintaro Abe, Japanese Politician And Ex-Cabinet Aide, Dies at 67". The New York Times.
7. (May 15, 1991). "Shintaro Abe, Japanese Political Leader". The Seattle Times.
8. 日本人名大辞典+Plus, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典,デジタル版. "安倍晋太郎とは".