August 26, 2016, 12:06 AM 
Not content with having the whole world adore him with his Super Mario cameo at the Rio Olympics,
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warmed Singaporean hearts by becoming the first foreign leader to pay his last respects to the late President S R Nathan.
PM Abe stopped over in Singapore en route to Kenya for a summit.
PM Lee Hsien Loong revealed on his Facebook post that "PM Abe expressed his respect and gratitude for Mr Nathan’s act of courage during the Laju hijacking" in his condolence letter.
Source: Lee Hsien Loong Facebook.
More importantly, PM Abe mentioned that "it meant a lot to Japan" when Mr Nathan became the first foreign Head of State to meet the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
This occurred when Mr Nathan made a State Visit to Japan in 2009 during his tenure as Singapore's president.
Photo: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images.
PM Abe also shared his visit to the lying in state at the Parliament House on his Facebook page.
Source: 安倍晋三 Facebook.
Below is a translation of Abe's post:
"Singapore's former president, who passed away on August 22nd, was a person extremely knowledgeable about Japan. On the way to attend the TIDAC Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, I stopped over in Singapore and represented Japan in offering condolences. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his wife greeted me.
In 2009 as a state guest to Japan, he (Mr Nathan) visited Hiroshima where he met the victims of the atomic bomb as a foreign head of state for the first time. I told his wife that this is something Japanese people will never forget."
In case some of our readers forget, Abe signed a condolence book for the late former PM Lee Kuan Yew at the Singapore Embassy in Tokyo last year.
Photo: Toru Hanai/AFP/Getty Images.
This was before making his way to Singapore and attending the state funeral of the late Lee at the University Cultural Centre, National University of Singapore personally.
Photo by Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore via Getty Images.
Two personal visits made by the Japanese head of government during our two sorrowful national events -- let's hope that this is also something that Singaporean people will never forget.
Top photo from Lee Hsien Loong Facebook
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