Highlights
- Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan was shot at today.
- When he first took charge as PM in 2006, he was the youngest PM since World War 2.
- Abe's grandfather Nobusuke Kishi also served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960.
Shinzo Abe News: Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan was assassinated while delivering a speech in western Japan's Nara city on Friday. The incident took the world by surprise because Japan is considered one of the world’s safest countries and with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere. Abe was holding his chest when he collapsed, with his shirt smeared with blood. His condition is said to be critical and he is showing no vital signs.
Here's all you need to know about Shinzo Abe
- Shinzo Abe is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan. His term as PM first started in 2006 and lasted for a year, after which he again took up the role in 2012 and remained PM till 2020.
- When he first took charge as PM in 2006, he was the youngest PM since World War 2 in Japan. Even then, he stepped down citing ill health, but took office again in 2012.
- Abe, 67, stepped down as prime minister in 2020 because he said a chronic health problem has resurfaced. Shinzo Abe be has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment.
- Abe hails from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, who also served as Prime Minister of Japan, from years 1957 to 1960.
- Abe is a conservative whom political commentators have widely described as a right-wing Japanese nationalist. Supporters of Abe said that his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capability.
- Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.
- Abe believed in ultra-nationalism, which riled the Koreas and China, and his push to normalize Japan’s defense posture angered many Japanese.
- Abe's first term was turbulent, plagued by scandals and discord, and capped by an abrupt resignation.
- Abe prioritized a close personal relationship with Donald Trump in a bid to protect Japan's key alliance from the then-US president's "America First" mantra, and tried to mend ties with Russia and China.
- In a shock announcement, he stepped down in August 2020, with a recurrence of ulcerative colitis.
