Japan remembers slain former PM Shinzo Abe on shooting anniversary

July 8 (UPI) -- Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised to carry on the legacy of his late predecessor Shinzo Abe during the second anniversary of Abe's assasination on Monday.

Kishida said Abe was keen on revising Japan's constitution, stopping the deflation of the yen and improving Japan's relationship with the United States, which he plans on continuing.

"Living the days that Abe could not live, we must pass on his thoughts and aspirations to the next generation," Abe said at a memorial called by conservative lawmakers.

About 600 people attended the gathering in Tokyo in Abe's honor on Sunday. The late former prime minister's wife, Akie Abe, said she hoped that Japan's residents keep him in their thoughts over the coming years.

"My husband was aiming to achieve a proud Japan," she said. "I hope the people of Japan will once again think about what that is."

Abe, who had left office, was making a speech in the Japanese city of Nara when he was shot to death, stunning the country where gun violence and attacks on public officials are rare.

Abe's portrait stood in front of the Kintetsu Railway Yamato-Saidaiji Station near where he was shot.

Legislators and others laid flowers at the portrait in the roped-off area at 11:30 a.m. local time, the period in which the shooting occurred.

Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, said its was important to remember Abe's work on realizing the constitutional revision and clearer imperial succession.

Japanese prosecutors last year formally indicted Abe's shooting suspect Tetsuya Yamagami with murder. He has been in custody since the shooting.