Shinzō Abe (1954 - 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan in 2006-2007 and again from 2012 to 2020, making him the longest-serving holder of the office in the country's history. [1] His second administration pursued the economic programme known as Abenomics, reinterpreted the constitutional limits on Japan's armed forces, and promoted the concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific. He was assassinated in July 2022 while campaigning in Nara. [2]
Background and early career
Abe was born in Tokyo on 21 September 1954 into a prominent political family. His maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi served as prime minister in the late 1950s, and his father Shintaro Abe was a long-serving foreign minister. [1]
He graduated in political science from Seikei University in 1977 and studied public policy in the United States before joining Kobe Steel. He entered politics as his father's secretary and was elected to the House of Representatives for a Yamaguchi constituency in 1993.
His national profile grew through his advocacy for the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea, and he served as chief cabinet secretary under Junichiro Koizumi. [2]
First term
Abe became president of the Liberal Democratic Party and prime minister in September 2006, at fifty-two the youngest post-war holder of the office. His first administration upgraded the Defence Agency to a ministry and revised the Fundamental Law of Education, but was damaged by a pensions-records scandal and by cabinet resignations. [1]
After a heavy defeat in the 2007 upper-house elections he resigned, citing the chronic intestinal condition ulcerative colitis. [2]
Return to office and Abenomics
Abe led the LDP back to power in December 2012 and remained prime minister for almost eight years. His economic strategy, quickly labelled Abenomics, was described as three arrows: aggressive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan, flexible government spending, and structural reforms intended to raise long-term growth. [3]
The programme weakened the yen, lifted corporate profits and equity prices, and raised female labour-force participation, while proving less successful in achieving the inflation target and in delivering the third arrow of deregulation. Consumption tax rose in 2014 and again in 2019 as part of efforts to contain public debt. [3]
Security and foreign policy
In 2014 Abe's cabinet adopted a reinterpretation of Article 9 of the constitution permitting collective self-defence, and security legislation enacting it passed the following year amid large public protests. He advocated formal constitutional revision but did not achieve it. [1]
Abroad he promoted a free and open Indo-Pacific, helped revive the quadrilateral grouping with the United States, India and Australia, and kept the Trans-Pacific Partnership alive as the CPTPP after the American withdrawal. [2]
Resignation, assassination and legacy
Abe announced his resignation in August 2020, again citing a recurrence of ulcerative colitis, and left office the following month. He remained influential within the LDP as leader of its largest faction. [1]
On 8 July 2022 he was shot while delivering a campaign speech in Nara and died of his injuries. The attack, carried out with an improvised firearm in a country with very low rates of gun violence, prompted a national reassessment of political security and led to prolonged scrutiny of ties between politicians and the Unification Church. A state funeral held in September 2022 drew substantial public criticism over its cost and legal basis. [2]
Abe is generally credited with restoring stability to a premiership that had changed hands almost annually, with raising Japan's diplomatic profile, and with shifting the terms of the country's long debate over defence. [3]
