Parties at both ends of the political spectrum are still grappling with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s multifaceted legacy, a year after he was fatally shot while delivering a stump speech in Nara Prefecture.
To his supporters, Abe was the embodiment of a charismatic politician unafraid to antagonize large swaths of the public in the pursuit of conservative causes at home, all the while striving to restore Japan¡¯s position in the eyes of its allies and rivals abroad.
But for his detractors, Abe was instead a symbol of opaque governing practices, with his critics decrying his tight control over the bureaucracy and attempts to dismantle Japan¡¯s postwar pacifism.
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