When Shinzo Abe was born on 21 September 1954, hardly anyone knew that this small child would go on to become one of the most revolutionary leaders, Japan as a nation ever saw. Shinzo Abe, was born in a prominent political family and later went on to become one of the chief architects of Japanese politics post World War II.

Abe, who was considered one of the most influential leaders, the island nation had ever produced was actually campaigning for a young politician near a train station in Japan’s old capital of Nara. He was shot in the neck by a gunman named Yamagami Tetsuya. Tetsuya meanwhile confessed that he had come originally to murder Abe.

Abe simply collapsed on the street, looking invariably for support. During his lifetime, Abe was groomed to follow the footsteps of his grandfather and former Prime Minister of Japan – Nobusuke Kishi.

Abe was always seen as a visionary leader, who embarked upon different types of challenges. He shaped and reshaped the political scenario so far as World Politics was concerned.

After a pretty brief period of working with Kobe Steel, Abe incidentally began his political career with a bang in the year 1982. He went on to marry his partner Akie Matsuzaki in the year 1987, although the couple never had any children.

One of the long harboured dream of Abe was to revise war-renouncing clause of Japan’s constitution. A great friend of India, Abe was always seen standing beside India through its thick and thin. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi deeply felt saddened by the assassination of the veteran leader and went on to say that the ‘world has lost a visionary’.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also written a blog more as a tribute to Abe and termed it as ‘My Friend, Abe San.’ Modi described Abe as “an outstanding leader of Japan” and a “towering global statesman” who always stood firm and dedicated in support of India – Japan friendship. Modi also went on to write – “I have lost a dear friend.”

Other prominent world leaders like Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin and others showed respect and tributes poured in from all quarters. It is seen as a strange fact that in a country like Japan, where there have been few instances of bloodshed and heinous crimes, such an incident took place.

It is a stark reminder of the fact that the world is passing through a difficult and transitory phase. And, there are lot of occurrences of global act of terrorism and heinous crimes. Abe who was assassinated was delivering a campaign speech on 8th July 2022. He was shortly seen collapsing on the floor was taken to the hospital and around 5:30pm local time, he was declared dead.

Abe as a 67-year-old leader was incidentally Japan’s longest serving prime minister who had served a total of four terms. He was shot in Nara by a 41-year-old man named Yamagami Tetsuya.

Tetsuya, a former member of the Maritime Self Defence Force did not apparently run away after he committed the heinous crime. As a matter of fact, he seemingly had told the police that he was basically dissatisfied with Abe but did not hold any kind of grudge against Abe’s view points.