Abenomics: How Shinzo Abe aimed to revitalise Japan's economy

Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated on Friday, had aimed to transform the economy.

He was the country's longest-serving prime minister, before standing down in the late summer of 2020.

Perhaps the most high profile policy of his time in office was "Abenomics", the economic programme that bears his name.

Although the raft of stimulus measures and major reforms did reinvigorate the world's third largest economy, it also fell short of expectations.

Mr Abe took office in 2012 at a time when Japan was in recession and Abenomics was seen as helping it return to growth during his first term.

However, his efforts to revive Japan's economy faced a major challenge when the country went into recession in the spring of 2020.

That and other slowdowns raised questions about the effectiveness of his approach.

Mr Abe's signature economic programme was the set of policies that he introduced from 2012.

His plan was to jumpstart Japan's economy out of two decades of stagnation using the so-called three "arrows" of Abenomics:

As an exercise in political branding, Abenomics was certainly a success, though it fell short of Mr Abe's own key economic target.

When his government took office it was faced with the daunting task of revitalising Japan's once dynamic economy, which was still in the shadow of the major slowdown during the so-called "lost decade" from around 1991 to 2001.

Abenomics did help drive growth, though not at the pace that the country had seen during its post-war boom. Even now, the size of the economy remains lower than the 600 trillion yen (£3.7tn; $4.4tn) goal set by Mr Abe's administration for 2020.

But as he left office many economists credited Mr Abe for putting the country in a more robust position to withstand economic shocks like the pandemic than when he came to office almost eight years earlier.

Mr Abe's economic approach was called into question when Japan slipped back into recession in early 2020.

He also faced criticism over how he dealt with Covid in the country, He mounted campaigns to encourage domestic tourism which opponents said contributed to a resurgence in infections.

Critics also say Abenomics failed deliver on pledges such as giving women in the workforce more of a voice, tackling nepotism and changing unhealthy work cultures,

So what does the future hold for Japan's economy now?

In the face of Omicron and the surge in energy prices, the current government has supported vulnerable households and affected businesses.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is now predicting that after a slow start to the year, with demand weighed down by Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war, the economy will start to pick and grow by 1.7% in 2022. It does, however, warn that economic recovery will be "sluggish".