'Shinzo Abe 1954-2022': Time magazine pays tribute to ex-Japan PM

Shinzo Abe news: This will be the fourth time the two-time former Japan prime minister is featured on the cover of Time - after 2006, 2007, and 2014.

Updated on: Jul 9, 2022, 14:36:46 IST

By HT News Desk

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Time magazine has unveiled the cover of its forthcoming issue featuring ex-Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated Friday while making an election speech in the western city of Nara. Abe, 67, was shot twice with a homemade shotgun and died at the Nara Medical University after blood loss from his wounds. A 41-year-old suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, is in custody and has reportedly told police he initially wanted to attack the leader of a group he believed had defrauded his mother; he believed Abe had promoted that group within Japan. Abe's body returned to Tokyo Saturday morning, greeted by a sea of mourners paying final respects to Japan's two-time ex-PM.

In a moving tribute to Shinzo Abe, the Time wrote he would be 'remembered for remaking Japan'.

This will be the fourth time Abe is featured on the cover of Time; the first was in September 2006, in the magazine's Asia edition, just as he was poised to become Japan's youngest prime minister since World War II. The cover described him as 'a forceful leader for a revived nation'.

After Abe stepped down in 2007 - citing ill health - he was again on the cover of the Asia edition; 'After Abe: The young champion throws in the towel. Who will give Japan the leadership it needs?'

In April 2014, two years into his second term as prime minister, Abe featured on the cover of Time's global edition - as a 'patriot... (who) dreams of a more powerful, assertive Japan'.

READ | Body of former PM of Japan, Shinzo Abe, returns to Tokyo

Abe gave an in-depth interview to the magazine then, saying: "I have made a pledge never to wage war again... we must build a world that is free from the sufferings of the devastation of war."

Shinzo Abe's assassination has sent shock-waves globally, not least because Japan is seen as a pacifist nation with some of the world's strictest gun laws. The United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Russia, China, and others have united in their grief.

Japan prime minister Fumio Kishida was livid in his address to his nation Friday night, condemning the killing Abe as 'barbaric' and 'absolutely unforgivable'.

Prime minister Narendra Modi penned an emotional tribute to Abe - 'my friend, Abe san' - and ordered a day of national mourning, with the flag at half-mast.

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