Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on Friday in a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind while delivering a campaign speech, an attack that shocked the nation that has some of the stricter gun control laws everywhere.
Abe, 67, who was Japan’s oldest leader when he resigned in 2020, fell bleeding and was flown to a nearby hospital in Nara, although he was not breathing and his heart had stopped.
After receiving massive blood transfusions, Abe was pronounced dead by doctors at Nara Medical University Hospital in central Japan at 5:03 p.m. (7:00 p.m. EST).
Shinzo Abe was giving a speech when he was shot. (new)
The head of the emergency department at Nara Medical University, Hidetada Fukushima, said Abe suffered significant heart damage, along with two neck injuries that damaged an artery. He never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.
Abe received a last-minute shot after he began his speech around 11:30 a.m. Friday (12:30 p.m. AEST) in Nara, western Japan.
Police in Nara prefecture arrested the alleged gunman at the scene of the attack and identified him as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of the Japanese navy.
NHK reported that it said it wanted to kill Abe because it had complaints about him unrelated to politics.
A spectacular NHK video showed Abe standing and giving a speech in front of a Nara train station ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election.
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is excited to speak after Abe was shot. (AP)
When he raised his fist to make a point, two shots rang out, and he collapsed grabbing his chest, his shirt smeared with blood as the security guards ran toward him.
The guards jumped on the gunman, who was face down on the sidewalk. On the ground was a double-barreled device that looked like a handmade pistol.
Other videos of the scene showed campaign officials around Abe.
The former leader still had great influence in the Liberal Democratic Party government and heads his largest faction, Seiwakai. Elections for Japan’s upper house, the least powerful in parliament, are set for Sunday.
A patient, believed to be former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is transported on a stretcher when he arrives by medicalized helicopter at a Kashihara hospital. (AP) Public broadcaster NHK showed this image of the alleged gunman arrested. (NHK)
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his cabinet ministers hurriedly returned to Tokyo from campaign events across the country after the shooting, which he described as “couple and barbaric”.
He promised that the elections, which elect members for Japan’s least powerful upper house of parliament, will continue 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 maximum protection.
The alleged shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, is detained near the scene of the shootings in Nara prefecture in western Japan. (AP) Spectators rushed to help Abe after the shooting. (BNO News / Twitter)
Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy. In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to grab additional editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting.
Japan’s oldest prime minister
When he resigned as prime minister, Abe said he had a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he had since he was a teenager.
At the time, he told reporters it was “heartbreaking” to leave many of his goals unfinished. He spoke of his failure to resolve the issue of the Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision of the Japanese constitution renouncing war.
This last goal was a great reason why he was such a divisive figure.
Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020 (AP Photo / Kazuhiro Nogi)
His ultranationalism irritated Korea and China, and his drive to create what he saw as a more normal defensive stance angered many Japanese. Abe did not achieve his beloved goal of formally rewriting the pacifist constitution drafted by the United States due to lack of public support.
Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger relationship between the United States and Japan that sought to strengthen Japan’s defense capacity. But Abe became enemies by forcing his defense goals and other controversial issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition.
Abe is a blue-blooded politician who was prepared 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 more important role in international affairs.
Many foreign officials were shocked by the shooting.
In response to a question, Chinese Foreign Ministry Zhao Lijian said China “is following the evolution of the situation and hopes that former Prime Minister Abe will be safe and recover quickly.”
“Our thoughts, our prayers are with him, with his family, with the people of Japan,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while attending a meeting of the Group of 20 Foreign Ministers in Bali. Indonesia.
Abe was taken to hospital. (Associated press)
Abe said he was proud to work while leading a stronger security alliance between Japan and the United States and the first visit by an incumbent U.S. president to the atomic bomb-bombed city of Hiroshima. It also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by promising that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was “under control” when it was not.
Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at the age of 52, but his first stage, too nationalist, ended abruptly a year later, also because of his health.
The end of Abe’s first period of scandals as prime minister was the start of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” policy that lacked stability and long-term policies. .
The crowd reacts to the shooting. (AP) Shinzo Abe, photographed here in 2020, was shot while campaigning in Nara. (EPA)
When he returned to office in 2012, Abe promised to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of the deflationary crisis with its “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.
He won six national elections and gained solid control of power, strengthening the role and defense capability of Japan and its security alliance with the United States. It also intensified patriotic education in schools and raised the international profile of Japan.
Police are inspecting the place where Shinzo Abe was shot in Nara. (AP)
Abe is a blue-blooded politician who was prepared 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 more important role in international affairs.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Abe’s death was “devastating news” and sent “our deepest condolences and condolences to Mrs Abe and Mr Abe’s family and friends and the people of Japan “.
“Mr Abe was one of Australia’s closest friends on the world stage. It was his vision that helped elevate our bilateral relationship to a Special Strategic Partnership in 2014. Under his leadership, the Japan has emerged as one of Australia’s most like-minded partners in Asia, a legacy that endures today, ”Albanese said in a statement.
“Mr Abe was a leader in the Indo-Pacific, advocating a vision of a free and open region. The Quad and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership are in many ways the results of his leadership. diplomatic.
“Mr Abe was also a giant on the world stage: a leader of the G7, the G20 and the United Nations. His legacy was one of global impact and profound and positive for Australia.
“A few days after being sworn in as prime minister, I had the privilege of traveling to Japan for the Quad meeting. In many ways, this grouping is a legacy of Mr. Abe’s diplomatic activism.
“Mr. Abe was the longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history. We will miss him very much.”
India has announced a day of mourning in honor of Abe.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid tribute:
Director-General of the World Health Organization:
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: