170 Facts About Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led the LDP to further victories in the 2014 and 2017 elections, becoming Japan's longest-serving prime minister.

In 2020, Abe again resigned as prime minister, citing a relapse of his colitis, and was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a staunch conservative whom political commentators had described as a right-wing Japanese nationalist.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was considered a hard-liner with respect to Japan's military policies.

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated reforming the Japan Self-Defense Forces by revising Article 9 of the Japanese constitution that outlawed declarations of war.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe enacted military reforms in 2015 that allowed Japan to exercise collective security by allowing JSDF deployments overseas, the passage of which was controversial and met with protests.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was credited with reinstating the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

On 8 July 2022, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in Nara two days before the 10 July upper house elections.

Polarizing figure in Japanese politics, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's supporters described him as a patriot who worked to strengthen Japan's security and international stature, while his opponents described his nationalistic policies and negationist views on history as threatening Japanese pacifism and damaging relations with East Asian neighbors China and South Korea.

Shinzo Abe was born on 21 September 1954 to a prominent political family in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe viewed Kishi as his "No 1 role model" and was influenced by many of his beliefs, like Kishi's hawkish stance on Communist China.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's paternal grandfather, Kan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was a Yamaguchi landowner who served in the House of Representatives during World War II.

In contrast to Kishi, Kan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a stalwart pacifist who opposed the Tojo government and war in East Asia.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended Seikei Elementary School and Seikei Junior and Senior High School.

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

From 1978 to 1979, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the University of Southern California where he studied English as a visiting student.

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.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe worked as a secretary for his father who visited 81 countries in the 1980s.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi Cabinets from 2000 to 2003, after which he was appointed Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a member of the Mori Faction of the Liberal Democratic Party.

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

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

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

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first prime minister born after World War II.

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed a general commitment to the reforms instituted by his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.

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.

Omi previously supported increases in the national consumption tax, although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe distanced himself from this policy and sought to achieve much of his budget-balancing through spending cuts.

Since 1997, as the bureau chief of the "Institute of Junior Assembly Members Who Think About the Outlook of Japan and History Education", Prime Minister Shinzo Abe supported the controversial Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform and the New History Textbook.

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.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe generally took a hard-line stance on North Korea, especially regarding the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took credit for this policy decision in his bestselling book, Towards a Beautiful Nation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that China–Japan relations should not continue to be based on "emotions".

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was respected among some politicians in the Republic of China, most notably those who are part of the Pan-Green Coalition seeking Taiwanese independence.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed the need to strengthen political, security, and economic ties with Southeast Asian countries.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initiated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Japan, the United States, Australia, and India in 2007.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's three-day visit to India in August 2007 inaugurated a new bilateral Asian alliance, building on the long history of friendly bilateral relations between India and Japan.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's initiative was to establish the "fifth" bilateral link in an emerging scenario, whereby, the US–Australia, US–Japan, Japan–Australia, and the US–India links are supportive strategic alignments.

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.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that "we are reaching the limit in narrowing down differences between Japan's security and the interpretation of our constitution".

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first cabinet member to commit suicide since World War II.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered great losses in the upper house election, losing control for the first time in 52 years.

On 12 September 2007, only three days after a new parliamentary session had begun, Abe announced his intention to resign his position as prime minister at an unscheduled press conference.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had described himself as a "politician who fights" and previously pledged not to resign.

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

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected to his Yamaguchi 4th district seat in the 2009 election, when the Liberal Democratic Party lost power to the DPJ.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine, a shrine dedicated to the war dead of the Republic of China, including those who died in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to the LDP leadership at a time of political turmoil, as the governing DPJ had lost its majority in the lower house due to party splits over nuclear policies and the cabinet's move to raise the consumption tax from 5 to 10 percent.

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.

Together with the New Komeito Party, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was able to form a coalition government that controlled a two-thirds majority in the lower house, allowing it to override the upper house's veto.

On 26 December 2012, Abe was formally elected as prime minister by the Diet, with the support of 328 out of 480 members of the House of Representatives.

In February 2013 Abe gave an address at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, in which he explained his economic and diplomatic objectives, and that he had returned to the prime ministership to prevent Japan becoming a "Tier Two Nation", declaring that "Japan is back".

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.

At the first CEFP meeting in January 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that the Bank of Japan should follow a policy of monetary easing to achieve a target of 2 percent inflation.

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.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe then appointed Haruhiko Kuroda as governor, who had previously advocated inflation targets, and who has pursued the government's policies of monetary easing.

On 15 March 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan was entering negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In February 2015 the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe government struck a deal to limit the power of the JA-Zenchu body to supervise and audit Japan's agricultural co-operatives, in a move designed to facilitate TPP negotiations, improve the competitiveness of Japan's farming sector and curtail the influence of the agriculture lobby.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe revealed the first measures related to the "third arrow" policies in June 2013, which included plans to establish deregulated economic zones and allow the sale of drugs online, but did not include substantial measures related to the labor market or business reform.

At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he was ready to act as a "drill bit" to break through the rock of vested interests and "red tape" to achieve structural reforms of the economy.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cited reforms in 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.

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 favorably to the 2013 announcement.

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.

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, despite declining population figures.

The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cabinet introduced measures to expand childcare and legislation to force public and private organizations to publish data on the number of women they employ, and what positions they hold.

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In November 2013 the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cabinet passed a bill to liberalize Japan's electricity market by abolishing price controls, breaking up regional monopolies, and separating power transmission from generation by creating a national grid company.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had said he favored the re-building of Japan's nuclear reactors following the Fukushima disaster and planned to strengthen relations with the United States.

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to office, although neither party had controlled the House of Councillors since the 2007 election, the opposition DPJ was the largest party.

In 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe supported the creation of the Top Global University Project program.

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

Shortly after taking office Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signaled a "drastic reshaping" of foreign policy and promised to pursue diplomacy with a global, rather than a regional or bilateral outlook based on "the fundamental values of freedom, democracy, basic human rights, and the rule of law".

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first visit overseas after becoming prime minister was to various countries in Southeast Asia.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe increased its allies in its international campaign to counter a North Korean nuclear threat.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe often visited countries such as Singapore, Japan's largest Asian investor and vice-versa.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the killings as "absolutely unforgivable" and confirmed that Japan and Britain had co-operated over the incident.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believed that this incident demonstrated the need for the creation of a Japanese National Security Council, and convened a panel to consider its creation soon after the crisis.

Southeast Asian nations, Australia, and India were significant and frequent destinations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited all 10 ASEAN countries in his first year in office.

In September 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intervened to aid Tokyo's bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, giving a speech in English at the IOC session in Buenos Aires, in which he extolled the role of sport in Japan and sought to reassure the committee that any ongoing issues with the Fukushima plant were under control.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe concluded the Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement with Australia's Abbott government in 2014 and addressed a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament in July.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first Japanese PM to address the Australian parliament.

Modi made his first major foreign visit to Japan in autumn of 2014, where he and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed agreements on nuclear co-operation, rare-earth elements, and joint maritime exercises.

On 30 May 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told officials from the ASEAN countries, the United States, and Australia, that Japan wanted to play a major role in maintaining regional security, a departure from the passiveness it has displayed since World War II.

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

In November 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met PRC president Xi Jinping at the APEC meeting in Beijing for the first time since either had taken office, after a photocall that was described as "awkward" by the press.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later told reporters that during the meeting he suggested establishing a hotline between Tokyo and Beijing to help resolve any maritime clashes and that the "first step" had been taken to improve relations.

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

In July 2014 the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cabinet decided to re-interpret Japan's constitution to allow for the right of "Collective Self-Defense".

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe argued that the move would not lead to Japan becoming involved in "foreign wars" such as the Gulf or Iraq War, but instead would secure peace through deterrence.

Cabinet inaugurated in December 2012 was the longest-serving and most stable in post-war Japanese history, lasting 617 days without a change in personnel until Abe conducted a reshuffle in September 2014, with the stated aim of promoting more women into ministerial posts.

In November 2014, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was attending the APEC forum meeting in the PRC and the G20 Summit in Australia, rumors 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.

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.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's popularity fell slightly with the announcement and he declared that he would resign if his coalition did not win a simple majority, though analysts agreed this was highly unlikely due to the weak state of the opposition.

Shortly after this, ISIL released a video in which a masked figure threatened to kill two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, in retaliation for the move unless Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government paid 200 million dollars of ransom money.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut short his trip to deal with the crisis, declared that such acts of terrorism were "unforgivable" and promised to save the hostages while refusing to pay the ransom.

The Abe cabinet worked with the Jordanian government to attempt to secure the release of both hostages, after further videos were released by ISIL linking their fate to that of the pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh, with deputy foreign minister Yasuhide Nakayama conducting negotiations in Amman.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the killings as a "heinous act", declared that Japan would "not give in to terrorism" and pledged to work with the international community to bring the killers to justice.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later used the example of the hostage crisis to argue the case for the collective self-defense legislation that his government introduced in the summer of 2015.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe argued that Japan should not be "predestined to apologize" forever, noting that more than eighty percent of Japanese people alive today were born after the conflict and played no part in it.

In Seoul in November 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the first China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit held for three years with Korean president Park Geun-hye and PRC premier Li Keqiang.

President Park stated that the agreement would be a "new starting point" for relations between the two countries, although both leaders received some domestic criticism: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for issuing the apology, and Park for accepting the deal.

On 27 May 2016, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accompanied Barack Obama when he became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, 71 years after the US atomic bombing of the city towards the end of World War II.

Shortly after Donald Trump had won the US presidential election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut short his presence at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit being held in Lima, Peru, in order to have an informal, impromptu meeting with the then president-elect at the Trump Tower.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe countered by arguing that the bills had been debated for "as many as 113 hours" before the vote.

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

On 18 October 2015 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presided over the triennial fleet review of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Self-Defense Forces.

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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.

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

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.

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

In December 2015, the two parties making up Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's governing coalition agreed to introduce a reduced rate of consumption tax for food when the anticipated tax increase from 8 to 10 percent takes place in April 2017.

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

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

At the 2016 election to the House of Councillors, the first that allowed Japanese citizens 18 and over to vote, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led the LDP–Komeito pact to victory, with the coalition being the largest in the House of Councillors since it was set at 242 seats.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remained relatively quiet on the issue for the remainder of the year, but in May 2017, announced that the constitutional reform would be in effect by 2020.

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

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

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

On 19 November 2019, Abe became Japan's longest-serving prime minister, surpassing the 2,883-day record of Katsura Taro.

On 24 August 2020, Abe became the longest-serving prime minister in terms of consecutive days in office, surpassing Eisaku Sato's 2,798-day record.

In July 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's public standing was further hit after he held a drinking party with LDP lawmakers during the peak of the floods in western Japan.

In 2020, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came under further criticism for extending the term of top Tokyo prosecutor Hiromu Kurokawa, who later resigned amid a gambling scandal.

Shortly after the summit was announced, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters he appreciated "North Korea's change" and attributed the diplomatic change in tone to the coordinated sanctions campaign by the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cautioned President Trump not to compromise on North Korea's missile program and leave Japan exposed to short-range missiles or relieve pressure on North Korea too soon before complete denuclearization.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed a desire to hold a bilateral meeting with North Korea on the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens, pressing President Trump to raise the matter at the summit.

Reports in 2019 revealed that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe authorized covering up information about two missing people from Japan living in North Korea.

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In 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid a 2-day formal visit to the PRC, in the hopes of improving foreign relations, where he had several meetings with President Xi Jinping.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that he hoped Xi Jinping would visit Japan to cultivate better relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cautioned Xi Jinping over protests in Hong Kong at the G20 Summit.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Xi it is important for "a free and open Hong Kong to prosper under the 'one country, two systems' policy".

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration was credited with overcoming protectionist pressures within Japan and rallying the 10 other TPP member countries to support CPTPP, which largely kept the previous agreement intact and left the door open to an eventual US return.

The district Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hailed from and represented includes a major whaling center and he long pushed to resume commercial whaling.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's colitis relapsed in June 2020 and resulted in his health deteriorating through the summer.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed regret at being unable to fully accomplish his policy goals due to his early retirement.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was affiliated with the ultra-conservative, revisionist organization Nippon Kaigi.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made comments that denied the occurrence of the massacre.

Later in the session, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated his belief that Class-A war criminals are not criminals under Japan's domestic law.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe published a book called Toward a Beautiful Nation in July 2006, which became a bestseller in Japan.

In March 2007, in response to a United States Congress resolution introduced by Mike Honda, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied any government coercion in the recruitment of comfort women during World War II.

In 2018, while negotiating a "comfort women" deal with then South Korean president Moon Jae-in, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe demanded that South Korea remove statues of comfort women that had been installed in South Korea, the United States, Australia, and Germany.

The Japanese government protested these decisions, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe argued that any issues concerning Japan's rule of Korea were previously resolved in the Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea which normalized relations between Japan and South Korea, adding that further requests of reparations meant that South Korea had violated the treaty.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that the content "had to be broadcast from a neutral point of view" and "what I did is not to give political pressure".

In December 2006, it was revealed that former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, in which Abe was Chief Cabinet Secretary, had influenced town hall-style meetings, during which paid performers would ask government officials favorable questions.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's face filled viewers' screens along with the name of NHK announcer Takeshige Morimoto, who anchors NHK's Ohayo Nippon program on Saturday and Sunday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine on several occasions, which enshrines the spirits of Japan's war dead, including several Class-A war criminals convicted in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

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

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not visit at all during his first term from September 2006 to September 2007, unlike his predecessor Koizumi, who had visited yearly while in office.

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

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe again refrained from visiting the shrine during the first year of his second stint as prime minister in consideration of improving relations with the PRC and Korea, whose leaders refused to meet with Abe during this time.

In lieu of visiting, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent ritual offerings to the shrine for festivals in April and October 2013, as well as the anniversary of the end of World War II in August 2013.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first visit to the shrine as prime minister took place on 26 December 2013, the first anniversary of his second term in office.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he "prayed to pay respect for the war dead who sacrificed their precious lives and hoped that they rest in peace".

On 15 August 2014, the 69th anniversary of the surrender of Japan in World War II, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe chose to not visit the shrine, in what was perceived as a diplomatic gesture to the PRC, South Korea, and Taiwan.

In May 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe posed for photographs giving thumbs up gestures while sitting in the cockpit of a Kawasaki T-4 military training aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Blue Impulse aerobatics team.

In 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government refused to admit refugees affected by conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that Japan must solve its own problems before accepting any immigrants.

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

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

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the daughter of the president of Morinaga, a confectionery manufacturer.

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

On 8 July 2022 around 11:30 JST, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot while delivering a campaign speech at Yamato-Saidaiji Station, Nara.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was supporting fellow LDP party member Kei Sato for the House of Councillors election.

The first shot missed and prompted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to turn around, at which point a second shot was fired, hitting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the neck and chest area.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was rushed to the Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara by helicopter.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that he killed Abe because he believed the former prime minister had spread the religion to Japan.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's body was returned to Tokyo the day after his assassination and his funeral took place on 27 September 2022.

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was often referred to as the "shadow shogun" due to his profound influence on Japanese politics during his life.

Columnist Josh Rogin wrote that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's lasting legacy was a world better prepared to confront an increasingly assertive China.

Similarly, US Admiral James Stavridis wrote that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's greatest contribution was a strengthened Japanese military.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's death solicited tributes and condolences from many states and leaders, a testament to his commitment to international relations.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remains controversial and is described as the "most polarizing" figure in contemporary Japanese politics.