Kan Abe
Kan Abe was a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1937 to 1946. He is the father of former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe and the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
Born into a family of brewers of soy sauce and sake who were landlords in the area of Heki in Yamaguchi Prefecture, he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University, the predecessor of the University of Tokyo.
Abe stood as a Seiyūkai Party candidate in the February 1928 general election but lost; he was appointed village mayor of Heki in 1933 and later served in the Yamaguchi prefectural assembly. He was elected to the House of Representatives as an independent candidate in the February 1937 general election. He earned the nickname "New Shōin" or "Shōwa Shōin" in honor of the earlier leader from Yamaguchi, Yoshida Shōin.
In the 1942 general election, he ran on a platform opposing the militarist government under Hideki Tojo, which had by this time taken away most powers from the Diet. The Tojo cabinet had attempted to block antiwar candidates from running through a registration system, notwithstanding which Abe won a Diet seat, which he used for an attempt to oust Tojo and end World War II. Abe was assisted in this effort by Takeo Miki, who became prime minister after the war.
Abe died of a heart attack in January 1946 while preparing to run in the first postwar general election.
