bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

US president-elect Donald Trump hosted Akie Abe, the widow of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for a private dinner with his wife Melania Trump at their Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Sunday.
Trump met Abe, 62, during his first term as president, during which time her husband pursued a close relationship with him.
“It was a privilege to host Mrs. Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago once again,” Melania Trump said in a post on the social network X.
“We fondly remembered her late husband, former Prime Minister Abe, and honoured his remarkable legacy.”

It was a privilege to host Mrs. Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago once again. We fondly remembered her late husband, former Prime Minister Abe, and honored his remarkable legacy. pic.twitter.com/lEtMPTsuDt
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) December 16, 2024

The post included a photo showing Abe standing between Melania and her husband, with the president-elect doing his characteristic thumbs-up pose.
Trump’s meeting with Abe, whose husband was assassinated in 2022, took place before he could meet with Japan’s current prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, despite her holding no political office.
The daughter of a wealthy Japanese family, she married Shinzo Abe in 1987 and rose to prominence during his terms as prime minister of Japan, first from 2006 to 2007, and then again from 2012 to 2020.
As Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Abe became one of the country’s most recognisable political figures, known for cultivating international alliances and his “Abenomics” economic strategy.
He was shot and killed while speaking at a political campaign rally in Nara on July 8, 2022.


Trump hasn’t met Japan’s new PM yet – but Shinzo Abe’s widow has been over for dinner

Japan police hunt McDonald’s murderer who stabbed schoolgirl to death

What’s behind Japan’s family murder-suicide crisis?

Japan’s Space One delays Kairos rocket launch again: media

Japan

Akie Abe (centre) pictured with Donald and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday. Photo:X/MelaniaTrump

US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania stand with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie during a visit to Japan in May 2019. Photo: Reuters

From Toyota to Daikin, Japan’s exporters brace for tariff pain under Trump 2.0

Cars for export are loaded onto a cargo ship at a port in Yokohama. Japanese exporters are working on tactics to limit the impact of Donald Trump’s “America first” policy. Photo: AP

Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren. Photo: Kyodo

US president-elect Donald Trump has said he will hit China, Mexico and Canada with new tariffs. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

A Honda EV is seen at a motor show in Thailand in November. Honda is among the Japanese manufacturers with plants in countries neighbouring the US. Photo: EPA-EFE

Is Japan’s Ishiba too ‘weak’ to deal with Trump? Split views on when meeting should occur

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Photo: Pool via Xinhua

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shakes hands with US President Donald Trump during their meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on February 10, 2017. Photo: Reuters

As Trump returns, Asia prepares to pay the price for reprise of ‘America First’ policy

Donald Trump’s return to the White House signals that America’s experiment with isolation is in fact a long-term directional change. Photo: TNS

A ship at the container terminal in Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Trump has pledged to impose a 10 per cent tariff on imports from all countries. Photo: Shutterstock

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Donald Trump during a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi in February 2020. Photo: AFP

Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters

A test-fire of the new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on October 31. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

THAAD interceptors are seen as they arrive at Seongju, South Korea, in September 2017. Photo: Reuters

UK Defence Secretary John Healey, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles meet in London in September. Photo: Pool via Reuters

Philippine Navy Fast Attack Interdiction Craft Lolinato To-Ong passes by a Chinese Navy ship during a Philippine military multi-service joint exercise on Wednesday at Loaita island in the disputed South China Sea. Photo: AP

A couple walk on a hill called ‘Teletubbies Hill’, a locally popular tourist attraction, as the chimneys of Suralaya coal power plant looms in the background, in Cilegon, Indonesia. Photo: AP

Shinzo Abe: a political titan who shaped Japan’s policies on China, defence, economy

Former PM Shinzo Abe. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe. File photo: dpa

Japan’s former PM Shinzo Abe with Indian PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi. File photo: AFP 

A Chinese maritime surveillance vessel passes near the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. File photo: Kyodo

People in Tokyo look at a TV news report about the attack on former Shinzo Abe on July 8, 2022. Photo: AFP 

News

Asia

East Asia

World

United States & Canada

The US president-elect welcomed Akie Abe to his Mar-a-Lago residence for dinner with his wife Melania on Sunday


The US president-elect welcomed Akie Abe to his Mar-a-Lago residence for dinner with his wife Melania on Sunday.
