Shinzo Abe (安倍 晋三, Abe Shinzō, pronounced [abe ɕindzoː]; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician.
He 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. Abe also served as Chief Cabinet Secretary. From 2005 to 2006, under Junichiro Koizumi and was briefly leader of the opposition in 2012.
House of Representatives
Born into a prominent political family, Shinzo Abe was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1993 election.
He was appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September 2005 before replacing him as prime minister and LDP president in September 2006.
He was subsequently confirmed as prime minister by a special session of the National Diet, becoming Japan’s youngest post-war prime minister.
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World War II
And the first to have been born after World War II. Abe resigned as prime minister just after one year in office because of medical complications.
From lucrative politics, shortly after his party lost that year’s House of Councillors election. He was replaced by Yasuo Fukuda.
He became the first in a series of five prime ministers who each failed to retain office for more than sixteen months.
Unexpected political comeback
After recovering from his illness, Abe staged an unexpected political comeback, defeating Shigeru Ishiba, the former defense minister. In a ballot to become LDP president for the second time in September 2012.
Following the LDP’s landslide victory in the December general election, he became the first former prime minister to return to office since Shigeru Yoshida in 1948.
He led the LDP to two further landslides in the 2014 and 2017 elections, becoming Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.
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Second Resignation
In August 2020, Abe announced his second resignation as prime minister, citing a significant resurgence of his ulcerative colitis.
He tendered his resignation on 16 September, upon the Diet electing Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as his successor.
Abe was a conservative whom political commentators widely described as a right-wing Japanese nationalist.
Member of Nippon Kaigi
He was a member of Nippon Kaigi and held negationist views on Japanese history, including denying the role of government coercion.
The recruitment of comfort women during World War II, a position which created tension with neighboring South Korea.
He was considered a hard-liner with respect to Japanese defense policy and advocated revising Article 9 of the pacifist Japanese constitution.
Security Reform Legislation
To permit Japan to maintain military forces. He proposed, advocated for, and successfully enacted security reform legislation in 2015.
To allow for the Japanese exercise of collective security, the passage of which was controversial and met with large protests.
Abe’s premiership was known internationally for his government’s economic policies, nicknamed Abenomics.
Which pursued monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms.
Assassination
Abe was assassinated with a firearm on 8 July 2022 while delivering a campaign speech in Nara.
