Tokyo - (AFP) - Shinzo Abe served as the longest-serving prime minister in Japan's history, spearheading ambitious economic reforms, building key diplomatic ties and tackling scandals.

Nearly two years after he had to relinquish power for health reasons, it is feared that Abe, 67, may have died after being shot during an election rally on Friday.

Abe was 52 years old when he became prime minister for the first time in 2006, making him the youngest prime minister in the country's history.

He was seen as a symbol of change and youth, but he also represented the third generation of politicians belonging to an elite conservative family.

At its beginning, his reign was turbulent and witnessed scandals and disagreements, and it ended with his sudden resignation.

After first saying he was stepping down for political reasons, he admitted he was suffering from a disease that was later diagnosed as ulcerative colitis.

Abby was in therapy for months. Upon his return to power in 2012, he said he had overcome the disease with the help of a new drug.

His second term, in which he became the longest-serving prime minister in Japan's history, was dominated at home by his economic strategy, which he called "Abenomics", combining increased budgets, monetary flexibility and structural reforms.

He also sought to increase the birth rate by making workplaces more considerate of fathers and, in particular, of mothers.

He also introduced a controversial consumption tax in 2019 that aims to help fund nursery places for children three and under, as well as to contribute to an overstretched social security system. However, Japan's economy began to decline even before the Corona virus crisis, which wiped out the remaining gains.

His handling of the crisis was seen as slow and confusing, which led to a decline in his support to the lowest levels during his rule.
He was scheduled to remain in the position until September 2020, which would allow him to attend an important occasion in his historic mandate, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed in 2021, but it seems that his health problems managed him again, and in 2020 he announced his resignation due to illness.

On the international stage, he took a firm stance on North Korea, but sought to be a peacemaker between the United States and Iran.
And he made it a priority to build a close personal relationship with Donald Trump, in an effort to preserve Japan's most important alliances, despite the slogan "America First" that the former US president used to raise, and he tried to repair relations with Russia and China.

But here, too, the matter is not without inconsistency. Trump remained determined to force Japan to pay a larger amount for the American forces deployed on its soil.

Tokyo failed to make progress in resolving the issue of the northern islands disputed with Russia, while a plan to invite Chinese President Xi Jinping for an official visit failed, amid rising domestic resentment towards Beijing.

During his tenure, he dealt with political scandals, including accusations of nepotism, which led to a decline in his approval rating, but was unable to harm his authority, due to reasons including the weakness of the political opposition in Japan.

Abe did not repeat a controversial visit in 2013 to a memorial to war victims that sparked widespread resentment in the region and criticism from the United States, and he adhered to a tough line towards South Korea over ongoing disputes from the war period, and continued to push plans to amend Japan's pacifist constitution.