Japan’s top police officer has said he will resign to take responsibility for security lapses that led to the fatal shooting last month of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Itaru Nakamura said on Thursday he intended to resign as head of the national police agency to give the organization a “fresh start”, weeks after Abe was gunned down while giving an election campaign speech.
“We have decided to shake up our staff and start over with our security duties, and that is why I submitted my resignation today,” Nakamura told reporters at a news conference detailing the security failures on shooting
“In the process of verifying our new security plan, we realized that our security system needs a fresh start… we need a new system to fundamentally re-examine security measures and ensure that this never happens again “. He did not say when his resignation will take effect.
Media said Tomoaki Onizuka, the police chief of Nara, the western prefecture where Abe was killed, had also said he would resign.
Abe’s killing, which took place late in the morning outside a suburban train station, immediately raised questions about how the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, was able to shoot his target from behind in short distance
Security experts have said bodyguards could have saved Abe by shielding or pulling him out of the line of fire during the two-and-a-half-second gap between the first shot, which missed the target, and the second fatal shot
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida acknowledged that security arrangements had been flawed, while police officials admitted there had been “problems” with security.
“We failed in our responsibility to protect dignitaries,” Nakamura said shortly after the July 8 shooting, before calling for an investigation and review of security for politicians and other prominent figures. “We take this very seriously. Like the [police agency] Commissioner General, who is in charge of leading and supervising the prefectural police, my responsibility is really serious.”
Abe’s death, just two days before national elections, prompted other candidates to cancel speeches or increase security measures.
Japanese media reported that none of the three local police officers assigned to guard the area behind Abe had noticed Yamagami approaching the politician shortly before he opened fire with a homemade gun. Instead, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, they had been observing the growing number of people stopping by to hear Abe’s speech.
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Yamagami, who is undergoing psychiatric evaluation, came within seven meters of Abe before firing the first shot, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing sources in the investigation, before firing the second from a distance of ‘about five meters.
Yamagami has told investigators he was driven to kill Abe by hatred of the Unification Church, saying his mother had left his family financially ruined after making large donations to the organization.
Abe sent a video message to a church-affiliated group last year, and his grandfather, postwar prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, helped him establish a presence in Japan to counter the growing influence of communism and the union movement.