2017-12-05
Shinzo Abe at Hisayoshi Ina’s Funeral — The Prime Minister Who Never Forgot a Friendship from His Youth
Republished July 26, 2026
When Nikkei special editor Hisayoshi Ina died, Shinzo Abe appeared at his funeral and quietly revealed a side of himself rarely captured by political reporting.
This chapter looks back at the connection between the young Abe, then secretary to his father Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, and Ina, then a reporter covering the Foreign Ministry, and records Akie Abe’s words about her husband’s gentle nature.
[On Republishing This Article]
When politicians are discussed, the focus is usually on policy, elections, political maneuvering, and approval ratings.
But a person’s character can also be seen in the way he treats old friends and remembers relationships formed long ago.
At the funeral of Hisayoshi Ina, a special editor at the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Shinzo Abe quietly revealed that side of himself.
This chapter was originally published on December 5, 2017.
[At the Funeral of Nikkei Journalist Hisayoshi Ina]
Even when some time passes without my seeing Prime Minister Abe, I do not think anything of it.
There is a reassuring feeling that “Abe is always Abe.”
I imagine that all of Prime Minister Abe’s longtime friends feel the same way.
He also has a warm heart and never forgets old ties or kindnesses.
I was reminded of this when Hisayoshi Ina, a special editor at the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, died in 2016.
I, too, went to the church where the funeral was held to pay my respects to a senior journalist whom I remembered with great affection.
There, I noticed the name of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
When the moderator began reading the messages of condolence, one of them described Ina’s final days.
It said, in effect, that even from his hospital bed he had continued writing manuscripts, and that what he wrote there may have been his final piece.
The words deeply touched everyone listening.
I wondered who had sent such a message.
Then the moderator announced the sender:
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.”
[It Was More Than a Condolence Message]
“What?
Did the Prime Minister visit Mr. Ina in the hospital?
I myself never managed to go.”
As I was struggling with that thought, security officers briskly entered the church.
Then the Prime Minister himself appeared, took a seat in the front row, and was the first to offer flowers.
Ina was not the kind of journalist who would boast about being close to the Prime Minister.
In fact, I do not think the two spoke to each other very often.
[When Neither of Them Was Yet “Somebody”]
This is my interpretation.
When Shinzo Abe was drawn into the political world as secretary to his father, then Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, he became acquainted with Ina, who at the time was covering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Perhaps the bond between them came from having shared those years when they were both still young and neither had yet become the person he would later be known as.
Perhaps they had memories from that period that remained important to them.
In any event, unless one truly cherishes memories and relationships from the distant past, one would not go so far as Prime Minister Abe did.
[Akie Abe on Her Husband’s Gentle Side]
When I later mentioned this to Mrs. Akie Abe, she said:
“That’s right.
People don’t easily understand that gentle side of my husband.
Mr. Taniguchi, please tell them about it.”
They are a good couple.
This article continues.