Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died at the age of 67.
The politician, who remains Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot while giving a campaign speech.
He died in the hospital where he was receiving medical treatment, said a senior official of the Liberal Democratic Party.
The suspected attacker was a man in his 40s, who was arrested at the scene.
The suspect had told the police that he intended to kill the former head of government because he was not satisfied with him.
Meanwhile, Abe has appeared regularly in the media to discuss current affairs; for example, he told Japanese television in February that a possible sharing of nuclear weapons with other NATO members should be discussed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On the Friday before the shooting, he had been on a street in Nara city campaigning, supporting Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidates ahead of the Upper House election scheduled for Sunday.
Otherwise, Abe is the longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history, having served from 2006/2007, then again from 2012/2020, when he resigned citing chronic illness, coughing.
By the time he was re-elected in 2012, Japan was facing an economic downturn after decades of stagnation – prompting one of Abe’s landmark initiatives, an experiment known as Abenomics. Allies credit the move with halting further decline – but the country’s economy remained vulnerable throughout his time in office.
