Agencies

July 8: Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister who launched his "Abenomics" policies to lift the economy out of deflation, beefed up Japan's military and sought to counter China's growing clout in a historic two-term tenure died on Friday hours after he was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election.

The unexpected event shocked a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled, Reuters reported.

According to the news agency, the yen rose and Japan's Nikkei index fell on news of the shooting, partially driven by a knee-jerk flight to safety.

Police said a 41-year-old man suspected of carrying out the shooting had been arrested. NHK quoted the suspect as telling police he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him.

It was the first assassination of a sitting or former Japanese premier since the days of prewar militarism in 1936.

The 67-year old Abe is best known for his “Abenomics” policy of aggressive monetary easing and fiscal spending.

He launched the three-pronged "Abenomics" strategy to beat persistent deflation and revive economic growth with hyper-easy monetary policy and fiscal spending, along with structural reform to cope with a fast-aging, shrinking population, Reuters further reported.

He also bolstered defence spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.

In a historic shift in 2014, his government reinterpreted the postwar, pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.