Ahead of the funeral, a vigil is planned for Monday night, but officials in Japan have not released any plans for a public memorial service for the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
Abe’s body returned home Saturday in a motorcade from the city of Nara, where an assassin shot the former leader as he delivered a campaign speech.
Police arrested the suspected 41-year-old killer, who blew up Abe with an improvised weapon in a rare case of gun violence in the country that has strict gun control laws.
The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, is believed to have been motivated by hatred of an unnamed religious group, which he accused Abe of promoting, according to local reports.
Yamagami, 41, told police he initially planned to attack the religious group’s leader because his mother had given them money, causing him to go bankrupt, Kyodo news agency reported, citing sources.
Police are investigating whether he acted alone.
Shinzo Abe was shot in the western Japanese city of Nara on Friday and was airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss.AP Photo/Ajit Solanki
Nara’s police chief, meanwhile, acknowledged security lapses that allowed the gunman to reach Abe and fatally blast him with the improvised shotgun.
“After the first report of the incident came in at 11:30 am. and the situation came to light, it was the culmination of the guilt and regret I felt in my 27 years in law enforcement,” Nara Prefectural Police Chief Tomoaki Onizuka said. reporters at a press conference Saturday, CNN reported.
Video of the assassination shows the gunman walking up behind Abe, shooting and then fatally shooting the former prime minister seconds later.
“I feel the weight of my responsibility,” Onizuka said at the press conference. “We can’t deny that there were problems with the security plan, given how things ended.”
By postal cables
