Abe Shinzo has been assassinated

ABE SHINZO, Japan’s former prime minister, was shot on Friday morning during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. Mr Abe was rushed to hospital; officials say he was in cardiopulmonary arrest and showed no vital signs. Shortly before 6pm in Tokyo, Mr Abe was reported to have died. The suspected shooter has been arrested and a gun recovered. The assassination sent shockwaves through Japan, where both gun crime and political violence are extremely rare.

As prime minister from 2012 to 2020, Mr Abe transformed his country, serving longer than any other Japanese leader in the post-war era. He pushed Japan to play a more prominent global role and to take a more active role in its own defence, a shift from decades of pacifism following the second world war. After stepping down because of the recurrence of a chronic illness, he returned to Japan’s parliament and remained a major presence in Japanese politics, heading the largest faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). From that perch, he continued to argue for Japan to reinforce its military, faced as it is with a rising China, a bellicose North Korea, a hostile Russia and a less reliable America. In a recent interview with The Economist, Mr Abe argued that Japan “must take responsibility for peace and stability” and break with the mindset of seeing an “ideal world”.