Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shot dead in Nara

Tags: International News

Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in Nara (Western Japan) on 8 July while campaigning for the upcoming election.

• Important facts

• The assailant shot Abe from behind with a shotgun with two bullets in the chest.

• The 67-year-old world leader was taken to hospital in critical condition but could not be saved. 

• The incident happened around 11.30 am (8 am Indian time).

• He was delivering an election speech on the street outside a railway station in the context of elections to the Upper House of Japan's parliament.

• Abe was shot in the left side of his chest as the attacker fired multiple shots.

• Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old man from the city of Nara, has been arrested on suspicion of shooting Abe with intent to kill.

• Who was Shinzo Abe?

• Early life

• Abe was born in Tokyo on 21 September 1954, he was the son of Shintaro Abe, who served as Japan's foreign minister.

• He got a bachelor's degree in political science from Seiki University in Tokyo in 1977.

• He then went to the U.S. to study public policy at the University of Southern California.

• In 1979 he began working at Kobe Steel as the firm was expanding its presence abroad.

• He left the company in 1982 to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

• Political career

• He was first elected as a  Liberal Democratic Party legislator representing the southwestern prefecture of Yamaguchi in 1993. 

• Abe is seen as a conservative who was a member of the party's Mori faction, once led by his father, who died in 1991.

• In 2005 Abe was appointed chief cabinet secretary under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

• In the same year, he was elected head of the LDP, preparing him to take over as prime minister.

• On September 26, 2006, Abe became Prime Minister of Japan for the first time, taking a tough stance on North Korea and implementing economic reforms.

• After the electoral defeat in 2007 saw the LDP lose control of the legislature for the first time in 52 years, Abe resigned as prime minister.

• In 2012 he was elected LDP president and became Prime Minister for the second time.

• In 2013 seeking to boost growth, Abe launched his “Abenomics” policies featuring easy lending and structural reforms.

• During 2014-2020 he was re-elected LDP leader and he served two additional terms as Prime Minister.

• On August 28, 2020 he announced he will step down as Prime Minister due to  health reasons. 

• Abe became Japan's longest-serving prime minister.

• Abe served as prime minister for eight years between 2012 and 2020, and before that from 2006 to 2007.

• On July 8, 2022, Abe was shot and seriously injured during an election campaign in the city of Nara, and later died.

• Japan

• Present Prime Minister - Fumio Kishida

• Japan's Capital - Tokyo

• Japan's Currency - Yen