Japan's longest serving prime minister Shinzo Abe has died

Shinzo Abe died in the hospital where he was receiving medical treatment, near to the attack in Nara, a senior Liberal Democratic Party official has said, public broadcaster NHK reports.

Shinzo Abe was Japan's longest serving prime minister and stepped down in 2020 after a second term.

But, he still had a huge influence over the current administration - for example when Russia invaded Ukraine, Abe came out and said Japan need to increase military spending.

It came as a huge shock when we first heard the news that he had been shot at around 11:30 local time this morning in the city of Nara.

Japan has a parliamentary election coming up this Sunday and that is why he was out on the streets giving a speech supporting one of the candidates in the city.

Apparently that visit was only confirmed late last night so how the suspect managed to find out about this and prepare remains an open question.

This kind of violence is extremely rare in Japan.

Former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, one of Japan's most influential politicians in modern times, has died after being shot at a campaign event, prompting shock and condemnation both in Japan and overseas.

A conservative nationalist by most descriptions, the 67-year-old remains the country's longest serving prime minister, having led the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to victory twice.

His first stint as PM was brief - for a little over a year starting in 2006 - and marred in scandal. But he made a political comeback in 2012, and stayed in power until 2020 when he resigned for health reasons.

Abe stepped down then after weeks of speculation, revealing that he had suffered a relapse of ulcerative colitis - the intestinal disease had led to his resignation in 2007.

But as the son of former foreign minister Shintaro Abe, and grandson of former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, Abe belonged to political royalty and was still considered a powerful figure in Japanese politics.

He was known for his hawkish foreign policy and a signature economic strategy that popularly came to be known as "Abenomics".