2 yıl önce

'Abenomics', diplomacy and more: A timeline of Japan ex-PM's career

Shinzo Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, and went on to become the country's longest-serving prime minister.

AFP

Abe revitalised Japan’s economy and led efforts for the nation to take a stronger role in Asia.

Born into a prominent political family, Shinzo Abe, who has been fatally shot at a campaign event in western Japan, is credited with bringing a degree of stability to Japan following a period of economic malaise and constant turnover among leaders.

Abe had been the country’s longest-serving prime minister. Here is a look at some key dates in his life and career.

September 21, 1954: Abe the son of Shintaro Abe, who served as Japan’s foreign minister, and grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, a former prime minister, is born in Tokyo.

1977: He graduates from Seikei University in Tokyo with a degree in political science, after which he moves to the US to study public policy at the University of Southern California for three semesters.

1979: He begins working at Kobe Steel as the firm was expanding its presence abroad.

1982: Abe leaves the company to pursue new positions at the Foreign Ministry and with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Japan's former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has died hours after being shot while making a campaign speech in Nara city.

Local media have named the suspected gunman as Tetsuya Yamagami, who is believed to be a former member of Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force pic.twitter.com/IgzmeN5hd5
— TRT World (@trtworld) July 8, 2022

1993: He gets elected as a LDP legislator representing the southwestern prefecture of Yamaguchi.

Abe, already viewed as a conservative, becomes a member of and eventually leads the party's largest faction, Seiwakai, that had once been headed by his father, who died in 1991.

2005: Abe is appointed chief cabinet secretary under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, during which he leads negotiations to return Japanese citizens abducted to North Korea. The same year, he is elected head of the LDP, putting him in line to take over as prime minister.

September 26, 2006: Abe becomes Japan’s prime minister for the first time, overseeing economic reforms while taking a hard line on North Korea and seeking to engage with South Korea and China.

2007: Following electoral defeats that saw the LDP lose control of the legislature for the first time in 52 years, Abe resigns as prime minister, citing health reasons. Abe was suffering from ulcerative colitis and was able to control it with medication.

2012: After again being elected LDP president, Abe becomes prime minister for the second time.

2013: Seeking to boost growth, Abe launches his “Abenomics” policies featuring easy lending and structural reforms.

Japan's relations with China undergo a particularly rough patch but begin to improve after Abe meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Beijing.

2014-2020: Re-elected LDP leader, he serves two additional terms as prime minister for a total of four, during which he develops close relations with then-US president Donald Trump, holding summits and golfing together.

August 28, 2020: Abe announces he will step down as prime minister, again citing health reasons, after his ulcerative colitis flares up again. By that point, Abe had already become Japan's longest-serving prime minister.

2021: Despite leaving office, Abe shows he can still rile up Beijing with comments on Taiwan. In a speech, Abe warned that “military adventure would lead to economic suicide."

July 8, 2022: Abe is fatally shot while giving a speech at a campaign event in the city of Nara. Police arrest a male suspect but no motive was immediately known.

"The former Prime Minister was brought into the hospital at 12:20 pm. The situation we were dealing with was a cardio pulmonary arrest. We tried to resuscitate but he was pronounced dead at 5:03 pm."

Hospital staff at the Nara Medical University Hospital pic.twitter.com/bg3MUeUn5a
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) July 8, 2022