JapanWho was Shinzo Abe?
Shinzo Abe, grandson of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 and served as Chief Cabinet Secretary under Junichiro Koizumi. He became Japan's first postwar-born prime minister in 2006 but resigned after a year amid scandals, election losses and illness. Returning in December 2012 after a landslide, he won further elections in 2013, 2014 and 2017 and became the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history before resigning for health reasons in September 2020. On 8 July 2022 he was shot dead while campaigning in Nara by a man who resented his ties to the Unification Church.
Political views
Launched Abenomics, combining monetary easing toward a 2 percent inflation target, flexible fiscal spending and structural reform.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCalled for a society "in which all women can shine", with a target of 30 percent of leadership posts held by women by 2020.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPassed 2015 security laws allowing the Self-Defense Forces to help allies under attack, despite large protests.
Source: theguardian.comSought to revise Article 9 of the constitution, which renounces war, but never brought revision to a vote.
Source: theguardian.comKept the Trans-Pacific Partnership alive after the United States withdrew, leading to the CPTPP in 2018.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPassed a 2013 state secrets law that expanded classification and raised penalties for leaks.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSaid in his 2015 war anniversary statement that later generations should not be "predestined to apologize", while reaffirming earlier apologies.
Source: japan.kantei.go.jp
Legacy
Supporters credit Abe with ending a period of rapid turnover in Japanese prime ministers, reviving the stock market and corporate profits, strengthening the US alliance, launching the Quad security dialogue and championing regional trade. Critics argue that Abenomics never reached its inflation target, that government debt rose to nearly 240 percent of GDP and that household incomes stagnated. His views on wartime history, including his 2007 claim that there was no evidence the military forced women into sexual slavery and his 2013 Yasukuni Shrine visit, drew condemnation from China and South Korea, although he reached a 2015 agreement with Seoul on the comfort women issue. The Moritomo and Kake favoritism scandals, including altered finance ministry documents, dogged his second term.
In their words
Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war.