Akie Abe, the widow of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, yesterday laid a wreath at a statue of her husband erected at a temple in Kaohsiung dedicated to members of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
While paying her respects, Abe said that her husband was very fond of Taiwan and had been planning to visit once the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
She thanked Taiwan for erecting the bronze statue as a tribute to her late husband following his assassination in July last while during a campaign rally in Japan.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
Akie Abe said she hoped the spirits of her husband and those commemorated at the temple would bring Taiwan and Japan closer together.
She also thanked Taiwan for lending a helping hand to Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, adding that through this visit to Taiwan, she again felt the deep friendship between the two countries.
Akie Abe arrived in Taiwan on Monday for a four-day visit at the invitation of the Taiwan Friends of Shinzo Abe Association.
Following a meeting with Vice President William Lai (賴清德) at a dinner banquet at the Grand Hotel in Taipei on Monday, Akie Abe told reporters she was eager to thank Lai in person for traveling to Tokyo to pay his respects to her late husband last year.
During the banquet, at which she also met with Japanese students awarded scholarships by the association to study in Taiwan, Abe said that her husband “always thought about what he can do for Taiwan.”
In return, Lai said he expressed his gratitude to the former Japanese prime minister for his support of Taiwan following an earthquake in Tainan when Lai was mayor.
Abe is to visit the grave of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) at New Taipei City’s Wuchihshan Military Cemetery today.
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