Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was gunned down on a street in western Japan on Friday by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech – an attack that stunned the nation that has some of the strictest gun control laws. Abe, 67, who was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he stepped down in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara, although he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead after massive blood transfusions, officials said. The head of Nara Hidetada Fukushima Medical University’s emergency department said Abe suffered severe damage to his heart, along with two neck wounds that damaged an artery. He never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said. Police at the scene of the shooting in Nara arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of the Japanese navy, on suspicion of murder. Police said he used a gun that was apparently homemade – about 15 inches (40 centimeters) long – and seized similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his one-room apartment. Police said Yamagami answered questions calmly and had admitted attacking Abe, telling investigators he had planned to kill him because he believed rumors linking the former leader to a specific organization that police did not specify. Dramatic video from NHK shows Abe standing and giving a speech outside a train station in Nara ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election. As he raised his fist to make a point, two shots rang out and he collapsed clutching his chest, his shirt stained with blood as security guards ran towards him. The guards then jumped on the gunman, who was face down on the pavement. 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”. He vowed that the election, which chooses members for Japan’s less powerful upper house of parliament, would go ahead 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 the highest level of protection. Although out of office, Abe still wields a lot of influence in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and heads its largest faction, the Seiwakai. 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. Bouquets for Abe were placed near the scene of the assassination. 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 difficult to leave many of his goals unfinished, particularly his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and the revision of its constitution. of Japan which renounced the war. That last goal made him 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 keen 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. Tributes to Abe poured in from world leaders, with many expressing shock and sadness. US President Joe Biden praised him for “his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure. Above all, he cared deeply for the Japanese people and devoted his life to their service.” Biden, who is dealing with a summer of mass shootings in the US, said that “gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities affected by it.” Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related crimes last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Tokyo had no gun incidents, injuries or deaths that year, although 61 guns were confiscated. Abe was proud of his work to strengthen Japan’s security alliance with the US 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.
