Shinzo Abe
Shinzo Abe (安倍 晋三) was prime minister of Japan.
History
Abe's maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi (岸 信介) was a leading imperial administrator over Manchukuo, an imperial minister, a founder of the LDP, and a post-war prime minister.
Abe was elected to the diet in 1993 for the LDP. A member of the nationalist Nippon Kaigi (日本会議, Japan Conference), Abe advocated for aggressive confrontation of geopolitical rivals, especially North Korea.
First Government
Following Koizumi's resignation, Abe was elected party leader and prime minister for the first time on September 26th, 2006.
After poor results in the 2007 House of Councillors election, and with failing health due to ulcerative colitis, Abe resigned in September 2007. Yasuo Fukuda succeeded him.
Second Government
Abe returned to politics in 2012 and beat out Shigeru Ishiba (石破 茂) to become party leader again. He led the party to a landslide victory in the 2012 general elections and became prime minister again.
The general elections of 2014 and 2017 also went favorably for the LDP, enabling Abe to become the longest serving prime minister in modern Japan.
In 2020, Abe again resigned due to a relapse of his ulcerative colitis. Yoshihide Suga succeeded him.
On July 8th, 2022, Abe was assassinated while delivering a stump speach ahead of House of Councillors elections.
Policies
Abe restructured the Defense Agency into the cabinet-level Ministry of Defense, the first military ministry since 1945.
Abe consistently feuded with news media and has been credibly accused of censoring NHK news reports.