He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University, and was a close associate of Natsume Sōseki, Seiichi Hatano, Kyoshi Takahama and Shigeo Iwanami, although he was forced to return home to teach English in Matsuyama due to reduced family circumstances.

He travelled to China in 1929, visiting Jinan, Qufu and climbed Mount Tai, and noted the strong Japanese commercial presence throughout Shandong Province.

After the end of World War II, Abe was appointed to a seat in the Upper House of the Diet of Japan in December 1945, and from January through March 1946 served as Minister of Education in the cabinet of Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara, where he oversaw the post-war reform of the Japanese educational system.

He helped draft the Fundamental Law of Education, and the current Tōyō kanji and Modern kana usage guidelines.

Abe was a strong supporter of the anti-war movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but maintained a critical stance against post-war socialism, which he viewed as dangerous as pre-war militarism.