OPINION

How Abe shaped Japan through foreign policies

Oped, Bill Emmott, Published on 13/07/2022

» Former Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo's assassination at an election campaign event in Nara, Japan, is both shocking and puzzling. It is shocking because Japan has known almost no political violence for at least a half-century, and because gun ownership in the country is tightly controlled. It is puzzling because Abe, having stepped down as prime minister in 2020, had no formal government role; yet the killing was plainly a political act.