Abe, 67, was shot in the back minutes after he began his speech in Nara. He was airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment, but he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead despite emergency treatment that included massive blood transfusions, hospital officials said. Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene of an attack that shocked many in Japan, which is one of the safest countries in the world and has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his ministers rushed back to Tokyo from campaign events across the country after the shooting, which he described as “senseless and barbaric”. The head of Nara Medical University’s emergency department, Hidetada Fukushima, said Abe suffered severe damage to his heart in addition to two neck wounds that damaged an artery, causing extensive bleeding. He was in cardiac and pulmonary arrest when he arrived at the hospital and never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said. Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020. Public broadcaster NHK aired dramatic video of Abe delivering a speech outside a train station in the western city of Nara. He is standing, dressed in a navy blue suit, raising his fist, when two shots ring out. The video then shows Abe collapsing in the street, with security guards running towards him. He holds his chest, his shirt stained with blood. The next moment, the security guards jump over a man in a gray shirt who is lying face down on the pavement. A double-barreled device that appeared to be a handgun is seen on the ground. Nara Prefectural Police confirmed the arrest of Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, on suspicion of attempted murder. NHK reported that the suspect served in the Naval Self-Defense Force for three years in the 2000s. Other videos from the scene showed campaign operatives surrounding Abe. The former leader remained highly influential in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, the Seiwakai. Elections for Japan’s Upper House, the least powerful chamber of its parliament, are on Sunday. “I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” Kishida said as he tried to control his emotions. He said the government planned to review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest level of protection. Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy. In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to pick up extra editions of newspapers or watch television coverage of the shooting. When he stepped down as prime minister, Abe said he had a relapse of the ulcerative colitis he had had since he was a teenager. He told reporters at the time that it was “mean” to leave many of his goals unfinished. He talked about his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution. That last goal was a big reason he was such a divisive figure. His ultra-nationalism angered Korea and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the US-drafted pacifist constitution due to poor public support. Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger US-Japan relationship intended to bolster Japan’s defense capability. But Abe has made enemies by pushing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition. Abe was a blue-blooded politician groomed 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 greater role in international affairs. Many foreign officials expressed shock at the shootings. Abe said he was proud to work while leading a stronger Japan-US security alliance and made the first visit by a sitting US president to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo win the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” when it was not. Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, aged 52, but his ultra-nationalist first term ended abruptly a year later, also due to ill health. The end of Abe’s scandal-ridden first term as prime minister marked the beginning of six years of annual leadership turnover, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability and long-term policies. When he returned to office in 2012, Abe promised to revitalize the nation and pull its economy out of its deflationary state with the “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms. He won six national elections and built a firm grip on power, strengthening Japan’s defense role and capability and its security alliance with the US. It also strengthened patriotic education in schools and raised Japan’s international profile.
Yamaguchi and Klug reported from Tokyo.
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