Few other Japanese leaders in living memory have left as deep an imprint on their country as Shinzo Abe. One of the most transformative politicians of the postwar era, he was shot dead at the age of 67 while giving a campaign speech in the western city of Nara ahead of elections to the upper house.
When he stepped down as prime minister in 2007 after only a year, most people assumed he would fade into an undistinguished career on the backbenches. Yet just over a decade later, he had become Japan’s longest-serving premier, with a host of major political reforms to his name and even his own globally recognised brand of economic stimulus, Abenomics.
