Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in the western city of Nara on Friday the 8th of July , news agency Reuters reported, quoting public broadcaster NHK. Abe was delivering a speech of elections on the following Sunday, when he was reportedly shot multiple times in the chest and neck.
Japan’s longest-serving post-war premier, Abe occupied the top post for eight years between 2012 and 2020, and before that, from 2006 to 2007. The former prime minister announced his resignation in August 2020, citing health concerns. He later revealed he was being treated for ulcerative colitis, a chronic intestinal disease. He was succeeded by fellow Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Yoshihide Suga, who was later replaced by Fumio Kishida.
Abe was shot dead while campaigning for the upcoming elections, his body has been taken to Tokyo from Nara city in western Japan. The 67-year-old leader was shot twice by an ex-military man with a homemade gun. Abe died due to loss of blood after a bullet hit an artery under his collarbone, Japanese media house NHK reported, citing police officials. They said that the bullet went through Abe’s upper left arm and damaged a blood vessel under his collarbone.
A suspect, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami was detained at the scene, and is being questioned. Few details were immediately available on Yamagami, but he was previously in the Japanese navy, known as the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF). Abe, Japan’s longest-serving PM, remained critical for a few hours after he was shot in his chest during a public event. This is the first time in around a hundred years that a sitting or former premier of Japan has been assassinated, according to a Reuters report.
Police said he used a handmade gun. They confiscated similar weapons and Yamagami’s personal computer after raiding his one-room apartment nearby, the AP reported. NHK said those living nearby were told to evacuate.
Yamagami lives in Nara city, where he shot Abe. Nara has mostly elected officials from Abe’s party, the Liberal Democratic Party, which has more or less remained in power in Japan since 1955 except for a few brief periods.
The Japan Times reported that Yamagami did not seem politically active, quoting a source from his former company. He had quit his job at a manufacturing company in May for health reasons after working there since 2020, the source was quoted as saying.
Japanese voters went to polls on Sunday the 10th of July for the upper house election under the shadow of the former prime minister’s death. According to Reuters, the latest opinion polls suggested a strong showing for the ruling bloc led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, considered to be a Abe protege. Abe’s body was brought back to his residence in Tokyo, where people, including Kishida and other top officials, gathered Sunday the 10th of July to pay tribute.
Meanwhile, Tetsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old man who killed former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, believed that Abe was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother’s financial ruin. He spent months planning the attack with a homemade gun, police told local media on Saturday. Yamagami has denied that the shooting was politically motivated, telling police he chose to make an attempt on the former Liberal Democratic Party leader’s life after initially planning to target an executive of the group.
Source credits: bloomberg.com , timesofindia.com , Japantimes.co.jp
