Multiple reports on Thursday and Friday indicated that Abe Akie, wife of late former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, is planning on visiting President-elect Donald Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday.
Abe, who served as prime minister during Trump’s first term in office, was the first world leader to meet with Trump after his election victory in 2016. The two developed a close friendship, and Abe was often cited as the world head of government with the most access to Trump. Abe Akie and First Lady Melania Trump also reportedly developed a close relationship, sharing the responsibilities of being First Lady of their countries, and regularly engaged each other when their husbands met.
Reuters reported, citing an anonymous source, on Friday that the Trumps invited Akie to dine at Mar-a-Lago and that she would attend on Sunday, apparently with Melania Trump. It noted the detail, originally reported by CNN, that the Trumps continued investing in their relationship with Abe Akie after her husband’s death and that the president-elect has, in the two years since Abe Shinzo’s murder, called his widow regularly to check on her.
The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun also reported, citing its own sources, that Abe Akie was “making arrangements to visit the United States.” The newspaper reported that the former first lady was planning on meeting with Melania Trump and could potentially meet the president-elect as part of that engagement.
U.S. first lady Melania Trump, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife Akie Abe look at koi carps in a pond at the Japanese style annex inside the State Guest House in Tokyo Monday, May 27, 2019. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Pool Photo via AP)
A conservative and one of the most dominant political figures in modern Japanese history, Abe ultimately stepped down from his position due to health issues. The politician struggled with ulcerative colitis and, at the time of his resignation, said that he had not brought the condition under enough control to make it possible for him to fulfill his duties at prime minister.
He appeared to be preparing a political comeback, supporting his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on the campaign trail, when he was shockingly assassinated in broad daylight in July 2022. The killer, identified as 41-year-old Yamagami Tetsuya, said he was looking for revenge against the controversial Unification Church, which he claimed had stolen money from his mother, and Abe was the closest figure with any notable ties to the church that he could find with minimal enough security around him to make him a viable target.
Abe Akie was a highly visible part of Abe’s tenure as prime minister. The first lady was supportive of her husband and a presence on the campaign trail while also advocating for her own political views, which often differed to those advanced by the LDP. Abe, for example, participated in a gay rights march in 2014, in support of an end to social stigmas against gay and lesbian people.
Abe Akie has also publicly participated in events apparently expressing contrition for the position of Imperial Japan against the United States. In 2016, for example, when the Abes visited the United States, Abe Akie made an individual trip to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to honor the American soldiers killed by the surprise Japanese attack that marked the beginning of American involvement in World War II.
“I understand that there are various debates and stances on Pearl Harbor, but I think that we have to pass on the memory to the next generation, transcending the feelings of hate and anger,” she said at the time.
The visit was notable as Shinzo Abe was an enthusiastic supporter of amending the Japanese constitution to allow the country to possess a military, which pacifists in the country have long opposed.
While Akie Abe was even often jokingly referred to as the true “opposition party” of Japan – especially given the years of ineffective organizing by Japanese leftist groups, the two maintained a united front and supported each other.
The reports of an invitation and potential in-person meeting with President-elect Trump has caused some stirrings in Japan as the current prime minister, Ishiba Shigeru, has attempted repeatedly to meet with Trump to no avail. Ishiba is a member of Abe’s LDP but has struggled with favorability and was handed a party in shambles, hurt by corruption scandals and the growing animosity towards the Unification Church, which has been tied to the LDP in the public eye since Abe’s assassination.
Ishiba spoke to Trump shortly after the presidential election in November, but has not succeeded in meeting with him. Ishiba claimed that he was told that Trump could not legally meet with foreign leaders until after inauguration, but Trump has held multiple such meetings, including with Argentine President Javier Milei, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and several world leaders at the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.