Shinzo Abe

Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, serving for nearly nine years.

Born in Tokyo, Abe was a member of the Satō–Kishi–Abe family as the son of LDP politician Shintaro Abe and grandson of prime minister Nobusuke Kishi. He graduated from Seikei University and also has attended the University of Southern California, before working in industry and party posts, and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993. Abe was LDP secretary-general from 2003 to 2004 and Chief Cabinet Secretary under Junichiro Koizumi from 2005 to 2006, when he replaced Koizumi as prime minister. Abe became Japan's youngest post-war premier, and the first born after World War II. A staunch conservative and member of the ultranationalist organization Nippon Kaigi, which holds negationist views on Japanese history, Abe took right-wing stances including downplaying Japanese atrocities in textbooks, denying government coercion in the recruitment of comfort women during the war, and seeking revision of Article 9 of the Constitution. In 2007, he initiated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with the US, Australia, and India, aimed at resisting China's rise as a superpower. He resigned as premier that year due to his government's unpopularity and illness.

After recovering, Abe staged a political comeback in 2012, when he was again elected LDP president and led it to a landslide victory in that year's election. He became the first former prime minister to return to office since Shigeru Yoshida in 1948. Abe attempted to counter Japan's economic stagnation with "Abenomics", with mixed results. He was credited with reinstating the Trans-Pacific Partnership with a new agreement in 2018. In 2015, he passed the Legislation for Peace and Security which allowed deployment of the Japan Self-Defense Forces overseas in certain strict conditions, which was controversial and met with protests. Abe led the LDP to victories in the 2014 and 2017 elections, becoming Japan's longest-serving prime minister. In 2020, he again resigned, citing a relapse of his illness, and was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga.

In 2022, Abe was assassinated in Nara while delivering a campaign speech for the upper house elections. The killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, confessed he was motivated by Abe's ties with the Unification Church. This was the first assassination of a former Japanese prime minister since 1936. A polarizing figure in Japan, Abe was praised by his supporters for strengthening Japan's security and international stature, while opponents criticized him for nationalistic policies and historical negationism, which they view as threatening Japanese pacifism and damaging relations with China and South Korea.