- Prime Minister Kishida denounces attack on “democracy base”
- Police detain the suspect at the scene of the attack
- Apparently, the attacker used a homemade pistol: NHK
- Little political violence, very controlled weapons in Japan
NARA, Japan, July 8 (Reuters) – Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s oldest leader, died Friday after being shot while campaigning for parliamentary elections, shocking a country in which political violence it is rare and the weapons are closed. controlled.
A man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with a seemingly homemade gun while talking on a traffic island in the western city of Nara, Japanese media reported.
It was the first assassination of a former Japanese prime minister since the days of pre-war militarism in 1936.
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Doctors fought to save Abe, but he died at 17.03 (08.03 GMT), about five and a half hours after receiving a shot.
He died bleeding from two deep wounds, one on the right side of his neck, a doctor said at a nationally televised press conference. The former leader had no vital signs when they took him.
In statements before Abe’s death was announced, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the shooting in “firmest terms”, while the Japanese and world leaders expressed surprise.
“This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections – the very basis of our democracy – and it is absolutely unforgivable,” Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions.
Police said they had arrested a 41-year-old man suspected of committing the shooting. NHK quoted the suspect, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police he was unhappy with Abe and wanted to kill him.
Reuters graphics
Abe was making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out. Then, security guards were seen approaching a man in a gray T-shirt and beige pants.
“There was a strong blow and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was at the scene, told Reuters.
“The first shot, no one knew what was going on, but after the second shot, what looked like a special police officer approached him.”
TRANSFUSIONS
Earlier, the Kyodo news service posted a photograph of Abe lying face up on the street next to a railing, with blood on his white shirt. People crowded around him, one was giving him a heart massage.
Abe received more than 100 units of blood in transfusions for four hours when he had a hemorrhage from a heart wound, said Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara University Medical Hospital. He arrived at the hospital on cardiorespiratory arrest and was never resuscitated.
Airo Hino, a professor of political science at Waseda University, said the shooting was unprecedented in Japan. “There’s never been anything like that,” he said.
Senior Japanese politicians are accompanied by armed security guards, but they often approach the public, especially during political campaigns when they make speeches on the road and shake hands with passers-by.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends APEC meeting of economic leaders in Danang, Vietnam, on November 11, 2017. REUTERS / Jorge Silva / File Photo
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In 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot dead by a yakuza gangster. The leader of the Socialist Party of Japan was assassinated during a speech in 1960 by a right-wing young man with a short samurai sword. Some other prominent post-war politicians were attacked but not injured.
Police said the alleged shooter was a resident of Nara. The media said he had served in the Japanese military for three years until 2005. Defense Minister Kishi declined to comment.
Abe served two terms as prime minister, and resigned in 2020 due to ill health. But he remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), controlling one of its main factions. Read more
Kishida, Abe’s protégé, hoped to use the election to step out of Abe’s shadow and define his position as prime minister, analysts have said. Kishida suspended his election campaign after the shooting. All major political parties condemned the attack.
“Very, VERY SAD”
In statements before Abe’s death was announced, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed deep concern for his state.
“Our thoughts, our prayers are with him, with his family, with the people of Japan,” Blinken said on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Indonesia.
The United States is Japan’s most important ally.
The yen rose and Japan’s Nikkei index (.N225) fell due to news of the shooting, partly driven by a knee flight to safety.
Abe is best known for his “Abenomics” policy of aggressive monetary easing and fiscal spending. Read more
It also boosted defense spending after years of downturns and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.
In a historic change in 2014, his government reinterpreted the post-war pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War II.
The following year, the legislation put an end to the ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense or to defend an attacked friendly country.
Abe, however, never achieved his goal of revising the U.S.-drafted constitution by writing the Self-Defense Forces, as the Japanese military is known, in the pacifist article 9.
Abe first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War II. After a year plagued by political scandals, voter outrage over the loss of pension records and an election for his ruling party, Abe stopped citing health issues.
He became prime minister again in 2012.
Abe came from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a grandfather who served as prime minister.
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Report by Satoshi Sugiyama in Nara, Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo; Additional Reuters staff reports; Written by Robert Birsel; Edited by William Mallard
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