72 Facts About Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

1. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, known for his nationalist views, was on his way to a park in central Tokyo to attend a rally calling on North Korea to return Japanese nationals kidnapped by the communist state during the Cold War, local media said.

2. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said she was crying and did not want to face waiting media, but noticed well-wishers across the street who were smiling.

3. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was 44 when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office but could easily pass for someone ten years younger than that.

4. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was first elected to the lower house in 1993, taking over his father's seat.

5. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has attributed the recovery that allowed him to re-enter politics to the drug Asacol.

6. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has to deal with regional conflicts with China, as the two countries each claim islands in the East China Sea as their own.

7. Prime Minister Shinzo 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.

8. The New York Times editorialized that "Mr Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems less concerned with repairing Japan's sullied international reputation than with appealing to a large right-wing faction within his Liberal Democratic Party that insists that the whole shameful episode was a case of healthy private enterprise.

9. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had raised his public profile with strong criticisms of North Korea, a longtime nemesis of Japan.

10. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a part of the LDP's inner circle before he ever held formal political office.

11. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly launched an ambitious economic program intended to stimulate the long-moribund Japanese economy and help speed the recovery of the northeastern Honshu region devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

12. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled his cabinet on 27 August 2007.

13. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's is popularly known as the "domestic opposition party" due to her outspoken views, which often contradict her husband's.

14. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's is the daughter of the president of Morinaga, a chocolate manufacturer.

15. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe married Akie Matsuzaki, a socialite and former radio disc jockey, in 1987.

16. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has favored short-term working visas for migrant workers to "work and raise incomes for a limited period of time, and then return home".

17. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's not visiting the shrine prompted a Japanese nationalist named Yoshihiro Tanjo to cut off his own little finger in protest and mail it to the LDP.

18. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initially refrained from visiting the shrine as a sitting Prime Minister.

19. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe posted on his public Facebook page "This morning on the TBS show 'Asazuba,' when a newscaster reported on a story regarding the apprehension of a molester, a photo of me was shown.

20. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a press conference, "It is a truly big problem if they want to injure my political life".

21. On 20 September 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected as leader of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

22. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition took almost a majority of the vote and two thirds of the seats.

23. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was expected to retain a majority of seats in the Diet.

24. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared the tax deal to be "the best possible result" of the negotiations.

25. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dismissed the chairman of the LDP's tax panel Takeshi Noda, and appointed Yoichi Miyazawa, who was more favourable to the policy, as his replacement.

26. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to mitigate any negative effects on the Japanese agricultural sector.

27. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe explained that the government would take measures to increase wages, boost consumption, and expand childcare, social security and care services for the elderly to meet these goals.

28. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe created a new ministerial position for the co-ordination of policies related to the economy, population decline, and social security reform, which was filled by Katsunobu Kato.

29. In September 2015 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected as president of the LDP in an uncontested election after LDP Diet member Seiko Noda failed to garner enough support to stand as a candidate.

30. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to continue to explain the legislation to try to gain "greater understanding" from the public on the issue.

31. On 24 December 2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected to the position of Prime Minister by the House of Representatives.

32. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a press conference on 21 November and announced that he was delaying the rise in the consumption tax by 18 months, from October 2015 to April 2017, and calling a snap general election for 14 December.

33. In November 2014, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was attending the APEC forum meeting in China and the G20 Summit in Australia, rumours began appearing in the press that he was planning to call a snap election in the event that he decided to delay the second stage of the consumption tax increase.

34. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described this as "proactive pacificism", with the goal of making Japan a more "normal" country, able to defend itself.

35. In December 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a five-year plan of military expansion.

36. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has attempted to centralize security policy in the Prime Minister's office by creating the Japanese National Security Council to better coordinate national security policy, and by ordering the first National Security Strategy in Japan's history.

37. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered Japan's support to other countries in resolving territorial disputes.

38. In 2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe allocated millions of dollars of the fiscal budget to help programs that help single individuals of Japan find potential mates.

39. In 2013 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe supported the creation of the Super Global Universities program.

40. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cited the "womenomics" ideas of Kathy Matsui that greater participation by women in the workforce, which is relatively low in Japan, especially in leadership roles, could improve Japan's GDP and potentially fertility rates, in spite of declining population figures.

41. In September 2013 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a "society in which all women can shine", setting a target that 30 percent of leadership positions should be held by women by 2020.

42. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a package of structural reforms in June 2014, that the Economist described as "less a single arrow than a 1,000-strong bundle" and compared favourably to the 2013 announcement.

43. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cited reforms of agriculture, energy and health sectors as evidence of this, and pledged to push forward with the TPP, a Japan-EU trade deal and tax, corporate governance and planning reforms.

44. On 15 March 2013 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan was entering negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, this was interpreted by analysts as a means through which the government can enact reforms to liberalise certain sectors of the Japanese economy, most notably agriculture, and was criticised by farm lobbies and some sections of the LDP.

45. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe maintained pressure on the Bank's governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, who was reluctant to set specific targets, into agreeing to the policy.

46. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared in his January 2013 policy speech to the Diet that economic revival and escaping deflation was "the greatest and urgent issue" facing Japan.

47. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe campaigned using the slogan "Nippon o Torimodosu", promising economic revival through monetary easing, higher public spending and the continued use of nuclear energy, and a tough line in territorial disputes.

48. On 26 September 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected as president of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party defeating former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba in a runoff vote by 108 votes to 89.

49. On 26 September 2007 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe officially ended his term as Yasuo Fukuda became the new prime minister of Japan.

50. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his unpopularity was hindering the passage of an anti-terrorism law, involving among other things Japan's continued military presence in Afghanistan.

51. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered great losses in the upper house election, marking the first time it had lost control in 52 years.

52. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to revise or broaden the interpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution in order to permit Japan to maintain de jure military forces.

53. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has increased its allies in its international campaign to counter the North Korean nuclear cards.

54. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed the need to strengthen political, security, and economic ties within the Southeast Asian region.

55. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has publicly recognized the need for improved relations with the People's Republic of China and, along with Foreign Minister Taro Aso, sought an eventual summit meeting with former Chinese paramount leader Hu Jintao.

56. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held conservative views in the Japanese succession controversy, and shortly after the birth of Prince Hisahito of Akishino he abandoned a proposed legislative amendment to permit women to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne.

57. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took some steps toward balancing the Japanese budget, such as appointing a tax policy expert, Koji Omi, as Minister of Finance.

58. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed a general commitment to the fiscal reforms instituted by his predecessor, Jun'ichiro Koizumi.

59. On 23 April 2006, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was elected as the president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

60. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gained national popularity when he demanded that Japanese abductees visiting Japan remain, in defiance of North Korea.

61. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was chief negotiator for the Japanese government on behalf of the families of Japanese abductees taken to North Korea.

62. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe left the company in 1982 and pursued a number of government positions including executive assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, private secretary to the chairperson of the LDP General Council, and private secretary to the LDP secretary-general.

63. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe studied public administration and graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Seikei University in 1977.

64. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is known internationally for his government's economic policies, nicknamed Abenomics, which pursue monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms.

65. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a member of the revisionist Nippon Kaigi and holds revisionist views on Japanese history, including denying the role of government coercion in the recruitment of comfort women during World War II, a position which has created tension with neighboring South Korea.

66. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a conservative whom political commentators have widely described as a right-wing nationalist.

67. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected in the 2014 general election, retaining his two-thirds majority with coalition partner Komeito, and again in the 2017 general election.

68. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe staged a political comeback, and on 26 September 2012 he defeated former Minister of Defense Shigeru Ishiba for the LDP presidency.

69. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was replaced by Yasuo Fukuda, the first in a series of five Prime Ministers who failed to retain office for more than sixteen months.

70. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned on 12 September 2007 for health reasons after his party lost the House of Councillors election that year.

71. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the third-longest serving Prime Minister in post-war Japan.

72. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe previously served as Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007.