Former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe assassinated during a speech

NARA, Japan –

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed on a street in western Japan on Friday by a gunman who shot him in the back while he was making a campaign speech, an attack that shocked the nation with some of the gun control laws strictest in the world.

Abe, 67, who was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he stepped down in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara, though he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead after receiving massive blood transfusions, authorities said.

Nara Medical University’s emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered serious heart damage, along with two neck injuries that damaged an artery. He never recovered vital signs from him, Fukushima said.

Police at the scene of the Nara shooting have arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan’s navy, on suspicion of murder. Police said he used an obviously homemade gun, about 15 inches (40 centimeters) long, and seized similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-bedroom apartment.

Police said Yamagami was calmly responding to questions and admitted to attacking Abe, telling investigators he had planned to kill him because he believed rumors about the former leader’s connection to a certain organization that police did not identify.

A dramatic video from NHK showed Abe standing and giving a speech outside a train station in Nara ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections. As he raised his fist to indicate something, two shots rang out and he collapsed clutching his chest, blood stained his shirt as security guards ran towards him. The guards then jumped on the gunman, who was face down on the pavement, and a double-barreled gun was seen nearby.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his cabinet ministers rushed back to Tokyo from campaign events across the country after the shooting, which he called “cowardly and barbaric.” He promised that the election, which selects members of Japan’s less powerful upper house of parliament, would go ahead as planned.

“I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions. He said the government planned to review the security situation, but added that Abe had the most protection.

Even though he was out of office, Abe remained highly influential in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, the Seiwakai, even though his ultra-nationalism made him a divisive figure to many.

Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy. Kenta Izumi, head of the Democratic Constitutional Party of Japan, the main opposition party, called it “an act of terrorism” and said that it “tried to nullify freedom of expression … causing a situation where (Abe’s) speech would never can be heard again.” .”

In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to buy extra editions of newspapers or watch television coverage of the shooting. Flowers were placed at the scene of the shooting in Nara.

When he resigned as prime minister, Abe blamed a recurrence of ulcerative colitis he had had since he was a teenager. He said then that it was difficult to leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to solve the problem of Japanese kidnapped years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision of Japan’s renouncing war constitution.

That ultranationalism angered the Koreas and China, and his drive to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the US-drafted anti-war constitution due to poor public support.

Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger US-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capabilities. But Abe made enemies by forcing defense targets on himself and other contentious issues in parliament, despite strong public opposition.

Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and a larger role in international affairs.

Tributes poured in for Abe from world leaders, with many expressing shock and sadness. US President Joe Biden praised him for “his vision of his for a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure. Above all, he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to serving them.” the”.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose time in office from 2005 to 2021 largely coincided with Abe’s, said she was devastated by the “cowardly and vile murder”. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Saturday a national day of mourning for Abe.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian declined to comment, except to say that Beijing offered its condolences to Abe’s family and that the shooting should not be related to bilateral relations. But the country’s social media posts were harsh, with some calling the gunman a “hero,” reflecting strong public sentiment against right-wing Japanese politicians who question or deny that Japan’s military committed wartime atrocities in Japan. China.

Biden, who is dealing with the summer of mass shootings in the US, also said that “gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities affected by it.”

Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had just 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Tokyo had no weapons incidents, injuries or deaths in the same year, although 61 weapons were seized.

Abe was proud of his work to strengthen Japan’s security alliance with the US and of leading the first visit by a sitting US president to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo win the right to host the 2020 Olympics by promising that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” when it wasn’t.

Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at 52, but his first overly nationalistic stint ended abruptly a year later, also because of his health.

The end of Abe’s scandal-ridden first term as prime minister was the start of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe promised to reinvigorate the nation and bring its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

He won six national elections and built a strong grip on power, bolstering Japan’s defense role and capabilities and its security alliance with the US. He also stepped up patriotic education in schools and raised Japan’s international profile.

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Yamaguchi and Klug reported from Tokyo.

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