Abe's complicated legacy looms large for current Japan PM

TOKYO (AP) — Assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was perhaps the most divisive leader in recent Japanese history, infuriating liberals with his revisionist views of history and his dreams of military expansion. He was also the longest serving and, by many estimations, the most influential.

For current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, this complicated legacy will loom large as he considers taking up his mentor's unachieved policy goals after a big win for their ruling Liberal Democratic Party in parliamentary elections Sunday, just days after Abe's death.

Kishida has gained considerable political strength, riding a surge of emotion and vows of resilience from voters after the assassination, but he’s also lost the most powerful force in his party — Abe.

“Kishida now faces an increasingly murky political situation,” the liberal-leaning Asahi newspaper said in an editorial. “The death of Abe, who headed the largest LDP wing, will certainly change the party’s power balance.”

Kishida made his immediate priorities clear after the election: “Party unity is more important than anything else."

But he must also make quick progress on growing worries over rising prices and a stagnant economy even as he tries to figure out how to boost Japan’s defense in the face of an aggressive China, Russia and North Korea.

And then there's Abe’s polarizing nationalistic agenda, much of which was left unfinished, including his attempts to boost patriotism in schools, to revoke the apologies made in the 1990s over Japanese aggression during the war and the controversial and divisive plan to revise Japan’s war-renouncing constitution to give the military more power.

How Kishida deals with Abe's still considerable political presence may determine his success as leader.

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