Former prime minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down yesterday while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country where political violence is rare.

Born into a prominent political family, Shinzo Abe, who was shot at a campaign event Friday in western Japan, had been the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

Former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe died on Friday (July 8), hours after he was shot during a rally speech in Nara prefecture in western Japan.

Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister, was shot today (July 8, 2022) while speaking at an election rally. Soon after, the man identified as the shooter was taken into custody.

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan and was airlifted to a hospital but he was not breathing and his heart had stopped, officials said.

Manoeuvres by China and Russia have sharpened security concerns in East Asia, Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said in unusually strong comments on Saturday, adding that Japan was on the front lines as neighbours tried to upend international norms.

Japan recorded a record low number of births in 2021, prompting the biggest ever natural decline in the population, government data showed on Friday.

Top European officials yesterday warned that Russia poses the “most direct threat” to world order and urged China to play a more constructive role on the international stage as they held talks in Tokyo.

Seven people from the Japanese tour boat that went missing with 26 people on board have been found, after three more were found on Sunday, Japan's coast guard said, although it was unclear if they were still alive.

Japan revised the schedule of its space exploration plans yesterday, aiming to put a Japanese person on the moon by the latter half of the

Japan’s government yesterday unveiled its biggest ever full-year budget, including record defence spending to counter intensifying regional security threats.

Japan will reinstate tough border measures, barring all new foreign arrivals over the Omicron Covid-19 variant, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Monday (Nov 29), just weeks after a softening of strict entry rules.

In a major shift for a country long closed to immigrants, Japan is looking to allow foreigners in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely starting as early as the 2022 fiscal year, a justice ministry official said on Thursday.

A 24-year-old man dressed in Batman's Joker costume attacked passengers on a Tokyo train line on Sunday evening, injuring 17 people as many party-goers headed into the city centre for Halloween gatherings, media reported.

Hiroshima A-bomb survivor Sunao Tsuboi, who became a prominent campaigner for nuclear disarmament and met Barack Obama on his historic visit to the city, has died aged 96, his advocacy group said Wednesday.

Japan’s former Princess Mako and her newly-wed husband Kei Komuro held a much-anticipated press briefing yesterday after finally tying the knots.

Japan's Princess Mako, the eldest niece of Emperor Naruhito, married her university sweetheart on Tuesday morning (Oct 26) in a stripped-down, low-key administrative affair.

Japan dissolved its parliament on Thursday, setting the stage for an election at the end of the month that will pit new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida against unpopular opposition in a battle over who can better fix the pandemic-battered economy.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 jolted Tokyo and surrounding areas late on Thursday, stopping train lines and causing sporadic power cuts, but there were no reports of major damage, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said.

Japan's new Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, exchanged fist bumps with lawmakers after he was formally elected by parliament on Monday, as public broadcaster NHK said he was set to dissolve the body next week and call an election on Oct. 31.