Breaking news: Abe Shinzo, Japan’s longest-serving post-war prime minister, has died
in Japanese politics, heading the largest faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party . From that perch, he has 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, Mr Abe argued that Japan “must take responsibility for peace and stability” and break with the mindset of seeing an “ideal world”.
Yet, as the world around Japan has become ever more turbulent, Japan itself has remained in recent years an oasis of domestic political stability. Though some of Mr Abe’s security policies generated large protests in 2015, demonstrations remained peaceful. Japanese politicians typically mingle closely with voters and travel with far less security than many of their counterparts elsewhere.
In an instant, the shooting shattered Japan’s sense of internal security. “I can’t stop shaking,” reads one viral tweet. “Japan is no longer safe and peaceful.” Kishida Fumio, the current prime minister, was also on the campaign trail in northern Japan and rushed back to the capital as the government set up a crisis-management centre. LDP members have called the incident an act of “terrorism” that cannot be forgiven.
Yet the attack is not entirely without precedent. Mr Abe long modelled himself after his grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, who served as Japan’s prime minister during a turbulent period from 1957 to 1960. Mr Kishi spearheaded the controversial passage of a new security treaty with America in 1960, in defiance of mass street protests. Just one month after the treaty was adopted, an assailant stabbed Mr Kishi in the thigh six times. He survived. Mr Abe, tragically, did not.
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