The assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is as sad as it is shocking. For Japanese of my generation, the tragedy calls to mind US President John F Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and the attempted assassination of Abe's grandfather, Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who was stabbed in 1960 after his government overcame parliamentary resistance to secure passage of the US-Japan Security Treaty.
Abe served as prime minister twice, first from September 2006 to September 2007, and then from December 2012 to September 2020, making him the longest-serving prime minister in Japan's history of democratic governments since 1885. While his first stint leading a government was not particularly successful, his second premiership was politically and economically transformative.
