Shinzo Abe wanted to be the next Margaret Thatcher — here’s where he succeeded and where he failed

The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of elections on Sunday has shaken Japan to its core. In a country that averages 10 deaths by gun per year and buying a gun requires a massive struggle with bureaucracy, Abe’s murder while campaigning on behalf of a junior party candidate has been particularly shocking.

As the world’s third-largest economy grieves the loss of its longest-serving prime minister, it is his legacy on foreign policy and in defining Japan’s position in the global order of the 21st…