The quiet, tidy plate that has become a hallmark of Japanese society was shockingly shattered on Friday when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead at close range while delivering a campaign speech. politics in the historic city of Nara, not far from Kyoto.
Considered one of the safest countries in the world, with an 87.5 percentile for absence of violence and political violence in 2020, Abe’s assassination seemed to radically disagree with that image.
While Japan’s secure image is justified, the country is also known for sporadic but significant examples of politically motivated violence.
In fact, this is not the first time Abe has been attacked. In 2000, before becoming prime minister, the Kudo-kai yakuza group attacked his home with Molotov cocktails.
Nor is it the first time a camera murder has been captured.
In the 1960s, the leader of the Socialist Party of Japan, Inejiro Asanuma, was assassinated while delivering a televised political speech, by a 17-year-old ultranationalist with a wakizashi, a short samurai sword.
The president of the Japanese Socialist Party, Inejiro Asanuma, was assassinated on live television while giving a speech in a political debate in 1960. (AFP)
Political assassinations
Japan has a long history of political assassinations, with several prime ministers in office or former prime ministers.
In 1909, Ito Hirobumi, who was the prime minister of Japan, was shot by a Korean nationalist when he arrived at Habin train station in present-day China to meet with the Russian representative in Manchuria.
Hara Takashi is another incumbent prime minister who was assassinated while waiting for a train for a party conference in Kyoto in 1921. His assassin, Nakaoka Kon’ichi, believed Hara was corrupt and planned to pass universal suffrage.
But it was the 1930s when a wave of assassinations made the role of the Japanese prime minister very dangerous.
In 1931 Japanese Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi died from the infected wounds he suffered in a 1930 assassination attempt on the far-right group Aikokusha.
A year later, Buddhist preacher Nisshō Inoue founded a far-right militant organization called the Ketsumeidan — or Blood League — designed to promote political reform through violence. His slogan, “one person, one kill,” led to a list of 20 politicians and business leaders who planned to assassinate as a method of restoring political power to the Emperor of Japan.
In 1932 he distributed automatic pistols to his followers, but only two carried out the plan: to kill former finance minister Junnosuke Inoue and businessman Dan Takuma.
Inukai Tsuyoshi, prime minister for only six months, was shot by 11 junior Navy officers at his home in Tokyo in May 1932. Inukai had tried to control the power of the army and wanted to limit the deployment of troops with China. . The original plan included killing movie star Charlie Chaplin who had arrived in Japan the day before as a guest of Inukai. But Chaplin was watching a sumo match when the killers hit him and he wasn’t home.
The last assassination of the prime minister in Japan was 86 years ago, when two former leaders were assassinated one day along with other politicians in a coup attempt in 1936.
Takahashi Korekiyo, who was in office between 1921 and 1922. After his political career, Takahashi worked for the Bank of Japan and introduced a number of controversial policies. But it was his decision to cut government spending, and the ensuing riots within the Japanese army, that saw him targeted.
Viscount Saitō Makoto, prime minister in 1932-34, was also shot dead in his home.
The co-founder of the Japanese Red Army, Fusako Shigenobu, on the left, was released from prison in May. (AP: Kyodo News)
The far right, the far left and the Yakuza
Violent militant groups representing the far left and far right have also been a feature of Japan’s political scene.
The Japanese Red Army or JRA carried out multiple attacks around the world during the 1970s and 1980s, including airline hijacking and hostage-taking.
Co-founder and leader Fusako Shigenobu was arrested in Osaka in 2000 for her involvement in the 1974 attack on the French embassy in the Netherlands. She was released that same year, in May.
Far-right ultranationalist groups, known as Uyoku dantai in Japanese, are also active in Japan, with the National Police Agency estimating that up to 1,000 groups with up to 100,000 members operate.
These groups participate in a wide range of ideologies, such as nonviolent noisy trucks with loudspeakers circulating in the streets promoting Japanese nationalism.
One of these right-wing groups, Aikokusha, or the Society of Patriots, was responsible for the 1930 assassination attempt on Prime Minister Hamguchi Osachi.
Many of the right-wing groups are affiliated with the so-called yakuza of Japan: mafia-style criminal gangs that operate widely in the country controlling drugs and human trafficking, as well as collecting feudal taxes and extortion as forms of protection racket.
Competition and rivalry between yakuza gangs can lead to violent battles for control.
Satoru Nomura, head of Kudo-kai yakuza. (Provided by: Tribun News)
The Kudo-kai based on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu is especially feared for its violence.
In 1998, a 70-year-old man was shot dead in broad daylight for refusing to give special treatment to the yakuza in a public works contract.
Kudo-kai has also thrown grenades at the home of Kyushu Electric Power executives and was the group that attacked Abe in 2000.
Anpo protested
Japan has also had a violent protest reminiscent of the Jan. 6 attacks on the Washington Capitol building.
A series of huge public demonstrations held during the years 1959 and 1960, and again in 1970, were designed to protest Japan’s security treaty with the U.S. that allowed the construction of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil.
In June 1960, hundreds of thousands of protesters surrounded the Japan Parliament building in Tokyo every day.
On June 15, protesters attacked the same building, collapsed inside and violently clashed with police. Shortly afterwards, 6.4 million Japanese workers went on strike, the largest in history.
A student at the University of Tokyo, Michiko Kanba, was killed. A planned visit to Japan by US President Dwight D Eisenhower was canceled and Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi resigned.
Doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara during his arrest in 1995. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
Aum Shinrikyo and the sarin gas attacks
Another infamous political movement in the history of Japan was the cult of the day of the final judgment Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo is a designated terrorist group in the EU, as well as in Canada, Russia and Kazakhstan. This year the US added the group to its list of terrorist groups.
Founded in 1987 by Shoko Asahara, the group is known for two deadly attacks with sarin gas, but they have also carried out murders, kidnappings and attempted to fabricate 1,000 assault rifles.
In 1994, the group launched sarin in the town of Mansumoto, using a converted refrigerated truck to spread a cloud of gas near the homes of judges overseeing a lawsuit that was expected to go against the cult.
The attack killed eight people and injured 500 others.
The scene of the Tokyo sarin attack in 1995. (AP: Chiaki Tsukumo, File)
A police investigation did not identify Aum Shinrikyo as the perpetrator of the attack and therefore his activities continued.
A few months later, another sarin attack, this time in Osaka, was followed by a much larger attack on the Tokyo subway in which 13 people died and more than 980 were injured, 54 seriously.
The full scale of worship activities is now being investigated. Asahara and more than 150 members of the organization were arrested and charged with various crimes, including 23 murder charges.
In 2018, Asahara and 12 followers were executed, but a new generation, with a new name, Aleph, is active.
In 2019, a supporter drove a car on the famous Takeshita Street in Harajuku, Tokyo to protest the execution of Asahara and her cult members. Nine people were injured.