Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a campaign speech on Friday in Nara. He was 67.
Abe served two separate terms as Japan’s leader for the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) – the first from 2006 to 2007, then again from 2012 to 2020. His second term was the longest consecutive term for a Japanese head of government.
He comes from a family of Japanese prime ministers: Abe was born on September 21, 1954, in Tokyo, into the family of a prominent politician. Both his grandfather and uncle were prime ministers, and his father was a former general secretary of the LDP.
Abe was first elected to Japan’s House of Representatives in 1993, at the age of 38. He held a number of cabinet positions in the 2000s, and in 2003 became secretary general of the LDP. Four years later, he was elected party president and became Japan’s prime minister.
His first term was marred by controversy and failing health, and he stepped down as party leader and prime minister in 2007. The end of Abe’s first term opened a revolving door in which five different men served as prime minister over five years until his re-election in 2012. He stepped down in 2020, citing ill health.
He continued to be an influential leader after leaving office: After leaving office, Abe remained head of the ruling LDP’s largest faction and remained influential within the party. He has continued to campaign for a stronger security policy and last year angered China by calling for a greater commitment from allies to protect democracy in Taiwan. In response, Beijing summoned Japan’s ambassador and accused Abe of openly challenging China’s sovereignty.
Abe redefined Japan’s diplomatic and military policy: Abe will be remembered for increasing defense spending and pushing through the most dramatic change in Japanese military policy in 70 years. In 2015, his government adopted a new interpretation of Japan’s post-war, pacifist constitution, allowing Japanese troops to participate in overseas combat — under conditions — for the first time since World War II.
Abe argued the change was needed to respond to a more challenging security environment, a nod to a more assertive China and frequent missile tests by North Korea.
During his tenure, Abe has sought to improve relations with Beijing and held a historic phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2018. At the same time, he has sought to counter Chinese expansion in the region by uniting Pacific allies.
He tried to build a personal relationship with former US President Donald Trump. As Washington’s relationship with Pyongyang shifted toward diplomacy, with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in holding historic summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Abe said he was “determined” to meet Kim. Abe wanted to normalize relations with North Korea and ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but his first priority was to bring some closure to the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
During his tenure, Japan’s relations with South Korea deteriorated. The two countries have been embroiled in a major dispute in which trade and military intelligence deals have been scrapped, in part because of the legacy of World War II and Japan’s brutal colonization of the Korean peninsula.
Abenomics: Abe came to office during economic turmoil and soon began to restart the Japanese economy after decades of stagnation. Soon after being re-elected Prime Minister in 2012, he launched a grandiose experiment known as Abenomics.
It included three so-called arrows – massive monetary stimulus, increased government spending and structural reforms.
After a strong start, it faltered, and in 2015 Abe fired “three new arrows” designed to boost gross domestic product. Any hopes that they could eventually achieve their goal were dashed when Covid-19 swept through the country in 2020, sending Japan into recession.
One of Abe’s major domestic achievements was securing the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. But the success of the long-awaited Tokyo Games was ultimately overturned by the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the competition to be postponed to 2021.
Abe declared a state of emergency months after the first cases were discovered. His administration has also been criticized for low testing rates and an early lack of specialized medical equipment to treat the growing number of patients.
More successful was Abe’s handling of the abdication of Emperor Akihito, the first Japanese monarch to step down in two centuries. He was succeeded by his son, Emperor Naruhito, in October 2019, beginning the Reiwa Era.
Abe is survived by his wife, Akie Abe, née Matsuzaki, whom he married in 1987. The couple had no children.
Read more about his legacy here and see his life in pictures here.
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