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Shinzo Abe

World leaders are considering how best to deal with US President-elect Donald Trump. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

How should Indo-Pacific leaders deal with Trump 2.0? Analysts say get personal

Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister during Trump’s first term, is cited as an example of how to work with the US president-elect.

9 Nov 2024 - 6:52AMvideocam

Japan’s ruling coalition loses majority, election outcome in balance

28 Oct 2024 - 11:02AMvideocam

Japan PM Ishiba’s defence reforms face election hurdle with expected LDP losses

25 Oct 2024 - 8:00AMvideocam

Man firebombs Tokyo headquarters of Japan’s ruling party

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is increasingly unpopular with the Japanese public due to a ballooning money scandal.

19 Oct 2024 - 12:10PM

Police officers investigate the scene outside the ruling Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in central Tokyo on Saturday after a man threw Molotov cocktail-like objects outside the building. Photo: AFP

Japan axes Russia cooperation post in sign of tougher Moscow stance

The move reflects Tokyo’s growing frustration at stalled negotiations over disputed islands and marks a departure from Shinzo Abe’s policies.

9 Oct 2024 - 9:20AM

Japan has a problem with ‘lone-wolf’ attacks. Can a new police unit stop them?

Experts warn that the isolated nature of such attackers makes them difficult to prevent, raising questions about the unit’s effectiveness.

1 Oct 2024 - 9:30AMvideocam

Video | Will Japan’s economy recover under a new leader?

The island nation slipped into recession in 2024, losing its status as the world’s third-largest economy.

26 Aug 2024 - 11:07AM

Will Japan’s economy recover under a new leader?

As Ishiba bids to be Japan’s PM, LDP conservatives may prove stumbling block

Observers say Ishiba’s chances are low amid a crowded field, and he may struggle to broaden party support base ahead of leadership election.

20 Aug 2024 - 6:00PM

Japan’s ministers visit Yasukuni shrine on World War II anniversary

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who plans to step down in September, stayed away, sending an offering instead. No serving Japanese prime minister has visited Yasukuni since Shinzo Abe in 2013.

15 Aug 2024 - 8:53PM

Japan LDP at crossroads with Kishida’s exit – can opposition take advantage?

Several LDP members have put their names in the hat to succeed Fumio Kishida as the party aims to recover from a string of scandals.

15 Aug 2024 - 8:00AM

People walk past a large screen in Tokyo displaying news about Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s announced resignation as LDP leader. Photo: Reuters

Japan steps up security for politicians, VIPs after Trump rally shooting

Incident has echoes of Shinzo Abe’s killing by a lone gunman two years ago, although analysts say it is too soon to compare the attacks.

16 Jul 2024 - 8:00AM

A man is arrested after he allegedly threw an explosive device at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Saikazaki port in Wakayama, western Japan, last year. Photo: Kyodo News via AP

2 years after Abe’s shooting, ‘second-generation’ church members struggling

Second-generation Unification Church members are still struggling with the impact of being born into a family of avid followers, such as being denied access to higher education or employment.

8 Jul 2024 - 5:19PM

The View | Japan stock rally peters out as investors wake up to another lost decade

Japan has squandered its chances to properly raise interest rates, abandon the weak yen policy and put strong reforms in place.

3 Jul 2024 - 5:20PMvideocam

‘I’ll blow up Koike’s office’: threats hit politicians ahead of Tokyo poll

Experts say incidents involving Yuriko Koike and Renho Murata stem from simmering ‘latent anger’ against the country’s existing social order.

27 Jun 2024 - 10:00AMvideocam

Voters listen to a campaign speech for the coming governor election in Tokyo on June 20. Photo: EPA-EFE

As Japan slips down press freedom scoreboard, is its compliant media to blame?

Japan ranked the lowest among G7 nations in Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 World Press Freedom Index. Observers say it’s because the country’s media has been shaped into a ‘good servant’ of the political class.

7 May 2024 - 12:00PMvideocam

A newspaper seller distributes copies of the Yomiuri newspaper in Tokyo. Photo: AP

Japan’s ruling LDP punishes 39 members in funds scandal, urges 2 to quit party

But opposition lawmakers say the party’s probe failed to fully bring to light the facts surrounding the slush funds and are set to demand further scrutiny.

4 Apr 2024 - 7:42PMvideocam

‘A serious offence’: Singapore jails man for threatening PM Lee on Facebook

Kong Chee Kian said someone should assassinate Lee following the shooting of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

21 Mar 2024 - 11:53AMvideocam

Japan’s LDP imposes tougher party rules after fund scandals

With the revision, the LDP can urge a lawmaker to leave the party following prosecution for violating the political funds control law.

17 Mar 2024 - 3:58PMvideocam

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaking at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s congress in Tokyo on March 17, 2024. Photo: Kyodo

Japan’s gender gap the widest among OECD countries, World Bank study shows

Japan is ranked 73rd out of 190 countries surveyed in an assessment of equality between genders, below the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Nepal and Lesotho.

8 Mar 2024 - 8:00AMvideocam

As scandals rock Japan, most of its people unsupportive of a political party

The poll is also the first time since November 2012 that the number of people indicating no political affiliation has exceeded 50 per cent.

21 Feb 2024 - 4:04PM

Calls grow for Japan’s Kishida to fire minister over Unification Church ties

But even as PM Kishida reels from the blow ahead of a potential election, analysts say he is ‘likely to survive’ as the opposition is ‘just not ready to take over’.

12 Feb 2024 - 2:30PM

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Photo: Kyodo

Opinion | How Kishida’s disappearing Japanese premiership is a gift to China

Embroiled in political scandal, deeply unpopular and increasingly irrelevant, Kishida cannot push the economic reforms Japan needs to be a counterweight to China.

8 Feb 2024 - 7:30PMvideocam

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida leaves after a press conference in Tokyo on December 13. He has ousted all four cabinet ministers of the ruling party’s largest faction, as he seeks to control the damage following a political fundraising scandal. Photo: Xinhua

Why Japan is reportedly reaching out to Donald Trump ahead of US election

Tokyo is concerned Trump might resume his ‘bromance’ with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which could threaten Japan’s security.

18 Jan 2024 - 6:01PMvideocam

Japan prosecutors won’t pursue case against ex-ministers over funding scandal

The investigators could give up prosecuting the group due to the difficulty of proving fundraising violations in the case, a report says.

13 Jan 2024 - 10:19PM

Eyeing ‘if Trump’ scenario, Japan must commit to its own defence

Experts say Japan could be forced to deal with a militarily emboldened China and North Korea, with reduced US engagement in the region, if Donald Trump returns to the White House.

31 Dec 2023 - 4:00PMvideocam

US, South Korean and Japanese air force bombers and fighter jets flying in formation in the eastern airspace of the South Korean island of Jeju during a joint air drill on December 20, 2023. Photo: Handout/South Korean Defence Ministry/AFP

‘Unfit’: knives out for Japan PM Kishida as fundraising scandal widens

While analysts say Prime Minister Fumio Kishida can survive until October 2025, his support is falling amid ‘great turmoil’ within the ruling LDP and growing public anger.

19 Dec 2023 - 9:00AM

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is reeling as yet more reports emerge of LDP politicians failing to report income and expenditures from fundraising parties organised by the party’s factions. Photo: dpa

In Japan, prosecutors question ruling LDP lawmakers over fundraising scandal

The scandal has already rocked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government, resulting in the replacement of all four ministers in the LDP’s largest faction.

16 Dec 2023 - 10:53PMvideocam

The true power of the cult caught up in Shinzo Abe’s assassination

The Unification Church – a cult linked to the motives of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s alleged assassin – has long wielded influence in Japan’s politics and society. Now it could be dissolved.

14 Oct 2023 - 8:26AMvideocam

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Shinzo Abe

Shinzo Abe was the prime minister of Japan from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history and was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He was fatally shot by a gunman while delivering a speech on behalf of another politician in the city of Nara on July 8, 2022. The gunman was identified as a 41-year-old local man who was a veteran of the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force and said he was frustrated with Abe.

Born

21 Sep 1954

Industry

Politics

Job Title

Former Prime Minister of Japan

last updated:

7 October, 2024