Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress — the first by a Japanese leader — that lauded deepening trade ties and the military alliance with the United States.
The speech, carefully tuned for his U.S. audience, cast Abe as a defender of strong democratic principles, a leader with “deep repentance” in his heart for the “lost dreams of young Americans” who died fighting Japan in World War II.