Varanasi: Akie Abe, wife of the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said that had her husband been alive, he would have been delighted to see the corridor and would surely have wanted to return to Varanasi.After inaugurating the Abe Memorial Corridor at the Rudraksh International Cooperation and Convention Centre with Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath here on Wednesday, she expressed deep emotion over her visit to Kashi.Recalling Shinzo Abe’s 2015 visit, she said he had observed the Ganga with great reverence. “I had long wished to see the sacred city myself.”She also recalled the 2014 Kashi-Kyoto Partner City Agreement, which strengthened ties between the two ancient cultural cities and led to the decision to build a modern convention centre in Kashi. She noted that the centre’s name, Rudraksh, was chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and highlighted the shared sanctity of the number 108, reflected in its 108 rudraksh motifs and Japan’s temple-bell tradition during the New Year’s Eve ritual.
