Japanese PM on two-day business visit to the UAE

Japanese premier, Shinzo Abe, is due to meet leaders of the UAE in the next two days.

ABU DHABI // The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is to visit the UAE next month for two days.

Mr Abe, who is scheduled to arrive on May 1, will meet Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, on the first day of his visit.

He will attend a business forum after which he will meet Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the next day before his departure that evening.

Mr Abe is in his second term as prime minister. He was first elected in 2006, but served less than one year before abruptly resigning from office.

At that time he was Japan's youngest post-World War II prime minister and the first born after the war. He became prime minister for a second time in a landslide victory in the 2012 general elections.

Mr Abe's first priority was to work on reviving the weak Japanese economy. He is known for his fiscal reforms, commonly referred to as Abenomics.

Mr Abe is also president of the Liberal Democratic Party and chairman of the Oyagaku propulsion parliamentary group.