shinzo abe

Shinzo Abe’s goal of militarization & PM Kishida’s “golden opportunity” to reform Japan

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Shinzo Abe’s goal of militarization & PM Kishida’s “golden opportunity” to reform Japan

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has vowed to continue where his ex-boss, the late Shinzo Abe, left off. And he just got the parliamentary majority he needs to get big things done — including, perhaps, tweaking the constitution like Abe long dreamed of. "Kishida now [has a] golden opportunity," Tomohiko Taniguchi, Abe's former adviser and close friend, tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

Assassinated! Japan’s grief & how Shinzo Abe’s goals will shape Asia

GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Assassinated! Japan’s grief & how Shinzo Abe’s goals will shape Asia

How will the shocking assassination of Shinzo Abe, Japan's former and longest-serving prime minister, reshape the country and the broader region? And will it lead to realizing Abe's unfulfilled dream of amending Japan's postwar pacifist constitution? On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer speaks to longtime Abe adviser Tomohiko Taniguchi, who shares how he felt when he found out his close friend had died.

Japan’s history of political assassinations

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Japan’s history of political assassinations

The shocking assassination a week ago of former Prime Minister Shinzo has rattled Japan, where such acts of political violence are now extremely rare — but were once common. In 1932, the head of government was killed by army cadets in an attempted coup. In 1960, Abe's own grandfather, also then-PM, survived a knife attack. Japan's last high-profile assassination occurred that same year, when a socialist politician was stabbed to death on national television.

How Shinzo Abe's positive legacy could shape Japan's future

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How Shinzo Abe's positive legacy could shape Japan's future

How will the shocking murder of former PM Shinzo Abe affect Japan moving forward? In past national tragedies, especially the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, longtime Abe adviser and close friend Tomohiko Taniguchi says that the "outpouring of sympathies and empathies from abroad helped a lot." This time, he tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World, everyone has urged Japan to carry on — and that's what the nation is doing right now.

Mourning, disbelief & anger at the death of Japan’s Shinzo Abe

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Mourning, disbelief & anger at the death of Japan’s Shinzo Abe

When Tomohiko Taniguchi learned that former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe had been killed, he felt many things, but first his thoughts turned to the man who took the life of his ex-boss and mentor. "I was filled with a lot of but different emotions all at the same time," he tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World. "Disbelief, grief, [but] the strongest emotion, of course, was anger. Still, Taniguchi believes it was an isolated incident that doesn't indicate we're the tip of an iceberg of political violence to come for Japan.