Abe

Abe, Kobo, pseud. of Kimifusa Abe, 1924-93, Japanese novelist and dramatist. Although Abe trained as a doctor, he never practiced medicine. Often compared to Kafka, he treated the contemporary human predicament in a realistic yet symbolic style. His minute descriptions of surrealistic situations often lend his works a nightmarish quality. Among Abe's novels are Woman in the Dunes (1962; tr. and film 1964), his best-known work, and Secret Rendezvous (tr. 1979). His plays include Friends (1967; tr. 1969). The first of his short stories to appear in English were collected in Beyond the Curve (1944-66; tr. 1991).

Abe, Shinzo, 1954-, Japanese politician. The son and grandson of politicians (his grandfather was Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi), he served as secretary to his father and succeeded to his father's seat in the Diet in 1993. Abe gained attention in 2002 for taking a strong stand against North Korea over its kidnapping of Japanese citizens, and in 2003 he became secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic party. Becoming chief cabinet secretary under Prime Minister Koizumi in 2005, Abe was regarded as Koizumi's likely successor, and succeeded him as party president and prime minister in 2006. A strong conservative and an apologist for Japan's role in World War II, Abe supported revising the constitutional limitations on Japan's military, increasing Japan's role in international affairs, taking a harder line in Japan's relations with North Korea, and continuing Koizumi's economic reforms. In office, he succeeded in repairing ties with China that had been damaged under his predecessor and secured passage of educational reforms and of an upgrading of the defense agency to ministry status, but a series of government scandals and the LDP's loss of control of the Diet's upper house (July, 2007) led to Abe's resignation in Sept., 2007.

Fortas, Abe, 1910-82, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1965-69), b. Memphis, Tenn. After receiving his law degree from Yale in 1933, he taught there (1933-37) and also held a variety of government posts. He was (1942-46) undersecretary of the interior before entering private law practice. Among his notable contributions to criminal law were his arguments in the Durham Case (1954), which helped broaden the definition of legal insanity, and in Gideon v. Wainwright (1962), in which the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states must assure free legal counsel to the poor in every criminal trial. A close friend and adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson, he was appointed by the president to succeed Arthur Goldberg on the Supreme Court. There he continued to support the expansion of criminal rights and joined with the other liberal justices in most civil liberties cases. In antimonopoly cases, he often sided with the minority in upholding business. In 1968, President Johnson nominated Fortas as chief justice of the United States; Republicans and Southern Democrats held a Senate filibuster against the nomination, causing President Johnson to withdraw Fortas's nomination. The following year, Fortas resigned from the court after it was revealed that he had, while on the bench, accepted $20,000 from a private foundation; the money was part of a life stipend to Fortas by the foundation. Although he returned the money, Fortas resigned from the court under public pressure, the first justice to do so.

(born June 19, 1910, Memphis, Tenn., U.S.—died April 6, 1982, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. He graduated from Yale University Law School (1933), where he studied under William O. Douglas before following him to the Securities and Exchange Commission. As cofounder of a major Washington, D.C., law firm (1946), he represented some of the largest U.S. corporations. In 1963 he successfully argued the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, which established the right of the accused to counsel in criminal trials, regardless of ability to pay. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, a close friend, nominated Fortas to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1965. Johnson attempted to elevate him to chief justice in 1968, but his nomination faced a filibuster in the Senate, and Fortas requested that his name be withdrawn from consideration. In 1969 Fortas resigned from the Court following a threat of impeachment over his dealings with a financier who was subsequently imprisoned for securities violations.

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(born June 19, 1910, Memphis, Tenn., U.S.—died April 6, 1982, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. He graduated from Yale University Law School (1933), where he studied under William O. Douglas before following him to the Securities and Exchange Commission. As cofounder of a major Washington, D.C., law firm (1946), he represented some of the largest U.S. corporations. In 1963 he successfully argued the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, which established the right of the accused to counsel in criminal trials, regardless of ability to pay. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, a close friend, nominated Fortas to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1965. Johnson attempted to elevate him to chief justice in 1968, but his nomination faced a filibuster in the Senate, and Fortas requested that his name be withdrawn from consideration. In 1969 Fortas resigned from the Court following a threat of impeachment over his dealings with a financier who was subsequently imprisoned for securities violations.

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ABE or Abe may refer to:

• Abe (given name), an English given name
• Abe (surname), a Japanese surname
• Abé language, a language of the Niger-Congo family
• Abe River in Japan
• ABE fermentation, a process that produces acetone, biobutanol, and bioethanol from starch
• AbeBooks, an online marketplace for books
• Access-Based Enumeration, an optional add-on for Windows system administrators which enables special functions for directory services in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and higher
• Animal Behavior Enterprises, Skinnerian behaviorist enterprise founded by Marian Breland
• Adelaide Blue Eagles, an Australian football club
• Association of Business Executives, a British business and management qualifications provider
• Associação Brasileira de Estatística, a Brazilian scientific society
• Lehigh Valley International Airport's IATA airport code
• Aber railway station's National Rail code
• Aberdeen, Maryland's Amtrak station code
• Aban Air's ICAO code
• Abe (Oddworld), the protagonist of the fictional universe Oddworld