Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a speech
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot on Friday morning while giving a campaign speech for the upcoming national election.
He was shot in the back minutes after beginning his speech in Nara in western Japan. He was airlifted to an emergency hospital, but he was not breathing and his heart had stopped.
The hospital that tried to save him said he died at 5:03 p.m., about five and a half hours after he was shot. A doctor said Mr. Abe bled to death from two deep wounds, one on the right side of his neck. He had no vital signs when brought in.
In an address to the nation earlier, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the shooting as inexcusable, calling it a “vile and barbaric” act.
The police have arrested a 41-year-old man suspected of carrying out the shooting. Identified as Nara resident Tetsuya Yamagami, he is a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, Fuji TV reported.
He reportedly told police he was unhappy with the former Japanese prime minister and intended to kill him.
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Japan’s powerful former prime minister leaves a divided legacy
(Punit Paranjpe/AFP via Getty Images)
Shinzo Abe was a political blue blood groomed for power. Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, he was also perhaps the most polarizing, complex politician in recent Japanese history.
Abe has angered both liberals at home and victims of World War II in Asia with his hawkish push to revamp the military and his revisionist view that Japan has been unfairly judged by history for its brutal past.
At the same time, he revived Japan’s economy, led efforts for the nation to assume a stronger role in Asia and served as a rare beacon of political stability before stepping down two years ago for health reasons.
“He has been the most towering political figure in Japan for the past few decades,” said Dave Leheny, a political scientist at Waseda University. “He wanted Japan to be respected on the world stage in the way he thought it deserved. . . . He also wanted Japan not to have to continue apologizing for World War II.”
Abe believes that Japan’s post-war record of economic success, peace and global cooperation is something that “other countries should pay more attention to and the Japanese should be proud of,” Leheny said.
Chiara Giordano July 8, 2022 4:02 pm
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Murder stuns Japan, a country where gun violence is rare
(Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images)
Shinzo Abe’s killing stunned and saddened people in a country where firearms are tightly regulated and political violence is extremely rare.
From Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an Abe protégé, to ordinary people on social media, there was an outpouring of grief. The last time a former or sitting prime minister was assassinated was nearly 90 years ago.
“I am incredibly shocked,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said at a regular news conference after the shooting and before Abe’s death was announced, fighting back tears and sniffling. “Regardless of the reason, such a heinous act is absolutely inexcusable. This is an attack on democracy.”
Koki Tanaka, a 26-year-old IT worker in central Tokyo, expressed a similar sentiment: “I was just amazed that this could happen in Japan.”
Newspapers ran special editions and Japanese television repeatedly broadcast footage of the shooting, showing Abe speaking vigorously into a hand-held microphone surrounded by political banners until the sound of a gunshot followed by another.
Gun ownership restrictions in Japan prevent citizens from owning handguns, and licensed hunters can only own rifles. Gun owners must take classes, pass a written test and undergo a mental health evaluation and background check.
Shootouts, when they do occur, usually involve “yakuza” gangsters using illegal weapons. There were 10 shooting incidents in 2021, eight involving gangsters, according to police figures. One person was killed and four were injured.
Chiara Giordano July 8, 2022 at 3:42 pm
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Brazilian President Bolsonaro has ordered three days of mourning for Shinzo Abe
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has expressed “outrage and sadness” over the killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and said he has ordered three days of national mourning in Brazil.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving leader, died on Friday hours after he was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election in the western city of Nara.
Bolsonaro called Abe, who was 67, a “brilliant leader and a great friend of Brazil” as he shared a picture of him on Twitter and called for “such unjustified cruelty” to be severely punished.
The Brazilian president met with Abe multiple times while attending the G20 summit in Osaka months after taking office in 2019, and returned to Japan for an official visit later that year.
“We support Japan,” Bolsonaro said.
Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population in the world outside of Japan.
(Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Chiara Giordano July 8, 2022 at 3:22 pm
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The killing raises questions about Japan’s VIP security
The fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at close range at a political rally has raised questions about the protection of senior figures in a country where political violence and gun crime are extremely rare.
Politicians in Japan often travel with fairly light security details compared to their peers in the United States and other countries that have higher rates of violent crime.
Abe, 67, was campaigning in the western city of Nara for Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidates ahead of Sunday’s election when he was shot, with Nippon TV saying the gunman was about 3 meters (10 feet) away.
Police arrested a 41-year-old suspect and said the shooting was later carried out with a homemade gun and the suspect confessed to the act.
An official from the Nara Prefectural Police Department told reporters that the department will check whether security at the event is sufficient and take appropriate action. More weapons were found at the suspect’s home, the official said.
Nippon Television quoted police in Nara as saying Abe was protected at today’s rally by an armed special police officer who had traveled from Tokyo and some other local officials.
When he was shot, Abe was standing at a junction outside a train station, speaking to a crowd of hundreds as buses and vans passed behind his exposed back down the road where the gunman appeared.
Several commentators said security around the former prime minister should have been beefed up.
“Anyone could have hit him from such a distance,” Masazumi Nakajima, a former Japanese police detective, told Japanese broadcaster TBS. “I think the security was too lax.”
“The person must be covered from all directions,” Koichi Ito, a VIP security specialist, told national broadcaster NHK. “If this thing isn’t 100 percent done, it’s not good.
Chiara Giordano July 8, 2022 2:46 pm
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Shooting suspect ‘said he had non-political complaints about Shinzo Abe’
The man arrested for the death of Shinzo Abe said he wanted to kill him because he had grievances against him that were not related to politics, NHK television reported.
Nara Prefectural Police earlier confirmed the arrest of 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami on suspicion of attempted murder.
NHK reported that the suspect served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force for three years in the 2000s.
Mr Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was still highly influential in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest Seiwakai faction.
Elections for Japan’s upper house, the less powerful house of Japan’s parliament, are on Sunday.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Kishida promised to hold them as planned.
Chiara Giordano July 8, 2022 at 2:02 pm
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David Cameron pays tribute to ‘good friend’ and ‘kind and decent man’
Former Prime Minister David Cameron has met Shinzo Abe on numerous occasions and the Japanese leader is among those who have warned the UK of the dangers of leaving the EU.
Mr Abe used a Downing Street meeting with Mr Cameron just weeks before the 2016 referendum vote to push the value of EU membership to Japanese investors in the UK.
Cameron called his death “devastating and truly shocking news”.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron has paid tribute to his “good friend” Shinzo Abe
(Anthony Devlin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“Shinzo Abe was personally a good friend, a strong partner of the UK and an extremely kind and decent man,” he said.
“I enjoyed working with him. My heart goes out to his family and friends, as well as to the people of Japan at this very sad time.”
Chiara Giordano July 8, 2022 at 1:25 pm
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Shinzo Abe was an ‘exceptional partner’ for the United States, says Anthony Blinken
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called the killing of Shinzo Abe “shocking” and “deeply disturbing”, describing him as a visionary leader and an outstanding partner for the United States.
Blinken made the comments at the start of a trilateral meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts on the sidelines of the Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali.
Blinken said that for the United States, Abe “was an outstanding partner and someone who was clearly a great leader.”
He said Abe had taken relations between the United States and Japan “to new heights” during his tenure.
Blinken said Abe is “a man with a big vision of what a free and open Indo-Pacific could look like, and an incredible ability to really work to achieve that vision,” referring to Abe’s signature foreign policy of pushing back against China’s expanding regional influence, which Washington has also embraced.
Blinken called Abe’s death “a loss for Japan, a loss for the world.”
Chiara Giordano July 8, 2022 1:10 pm
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Abe’s assassination has drawn unfavorable remarks from Chinese citizens
In China, the shooting of Shinzo Abe caused…
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