Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving former prime minister of Japan, passed away today after being shot in the neck and heart earlier today while giving a speech in the south of the nation.
Ahead of the Sunday parliamentary elections, the 67-year-old, who held office for a total of nine years over two terms, was assassinated in the city of Nara at around 11.30 a.m. as he organized support for the local candidate.
Six hours later, shortly after wife Akie had gotten to his bedside, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party made the announcement of his passing.
According to the medical professionals, Abe had cuts deep enough to reach his heart on the right side of his neck and body.
He received “a lot of blood transfusions” and was “bleeding severely,” but he was unable to be rescued.
Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old navy veteran, was apprehended on the spot while brandishing what seemed to be a homemade shotgun on charges of attempted murder.
Police claim that since then, he has confessed, telling them that he was “dissatisfied” with Abe and that he planned to kill him.
Witnesses claimed Yamagami approached Abe from behind and fired two shots, the second of which knocked Abe to the ground just as he was ready to begin speaking.
Before being transported to the hospital by helicopter, Yamagami was tackled by several members of Abe’s security detail as others applied chest compressions to the lawmaker.
The current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, referred to the shooting as an assault on “the foundation of democracy” and called it “heinous,” “barbaric,” and “completely inexcusable.”
“I would like to use the strongest language possible to denounce this behaviour,” he continued.
The shooting, which took occurred in a nation that takes pride in its low rates of violent crime and has highly strict gun restrictions, is a terribly disturbing end to the life of Japan’s most well-known leader.
Abe, a hardline conservative and economic reformer who led Japan out of decades of stagnant economic growth and established it as a major player on the international scene, leaves behind one of the largest legacies of any post-war leader.
Abe was raised in a political family; both his great-grandfather and great-uncle had held the position of prime minister before him, and he had been prepared for leadership from a young age.
He was elected premier for the first time in 2006 at the age of 52, making him the youngest person to occupy the position.
However, he was dogged by scandal and abruptly resigned after just a year due to a crippling bowel illness called ulcerative colitis.
He then reclaimed the premiership in 2012 and served in that capacity for the following eight years, becoming Japan’s longest-serving leader, before being forced to resign in 2020 due to a recurrence of the intestinal ailment.
His ‘Abenomics’ strategy, which entails enormous monetary easing, elimination of red tape, and massive government spending, is most recognized for reviving Japan’s flagging economy.
But he also worked to strengthen ties with western allies, particularly the US, and advocated for changes to Japan’s pacifist post-war constitution that would have allowed the country to build a full-fledged military.
According to top cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the former prime minister Abe was shot in the western city of Nara at around 11:30 a.m.
“One man has been brought into custody who is thought to be the shooter.”
At this time, it is uncertain how former prime minister Abe is doing.
Whatever the motivation, Matsuno continued, “Such a terrible conduct can never be accepted, and we strongly condemn it.
According to Radio 4, the alleged shooter is a former soldier who served in the Japanese self-defense forces and was tackled at the scene before being taken into custody.
It is believed that the suspect created the makeshift weapon used in the attack.
Yamagami had been employed by the Maritime Self-Defense Force for three years, from about 2005, according to many Ministry of Defense sources.
Despite having his security team around him, it was claimed that Abe was shot at close range on Friday while being protected by his crew.
According to NHK and the Kyodo news agency, the former leader was giving a stump speech at a gathering before Sunday’s upper house elections when shots were fired.
A young woman present at the incident told NHK, “He was giving a speech and a man appeared from behind.”
The first shot made a toy-like noise. Despite the loud bang, he didn’t collapse. You could see the flash and smoke from the second shot, she continued.
People surrounded him and applied chest compressions to him after the second shot.
NHK broadcast a video of Abe giving a campaign address outside of a railway station when two bullets were fired.
The video then showed security personnel putting a man on the ground after the view briefly became blocked.
Another video played on NHK might be seen with a plume of smoke behind Abe.
In a Kyodo photograph, Abe could be seen with blood on his white shirt laying face-up by a guardrail.
He had a throng of people around him, one of whom was giving him chest compressions.
According to TBS Television, Abe was shot on the left side of his chest and maybe in the neck.
Heart failure refers to a condition in which the heart is unable to adequately pump blood and provide the body’s tissues with the oxygen they require.
Officials in Japan occasionally use the phrase to describe circumstances in which victims have passed away but not yet received a formal death certificate.
Following the incident, a task force, according to the government, was established.
The Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, a member of the same political party as Abe, is flying by helicopter from Yamagata, where he is holding a campaign stop, to Tokyo. All Cabinet ministers must return to Tokyo from their campaign outings, according to Matsuno.
Former Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo was shot, and US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel expressed his sadness and shock in a statement.
“The US government and US people are praying for Abe-san, his family, and the people of Japan,” they said.
Gen Nakatani, a special assistant to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, reportedly told reporters that “terror or violence can never be condoned.”
U.S. officials and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese voiced shock and worry about the shooting.
While attending a conference of the Group of 20 foreign ministers in Bali, Indonesia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked, “Our thoughts and prayers are with him, with his family, and with the people of Japan.”
Abe-san has been a fantastic leader for Japan and a steadfast ally of the United States. Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, posted on Twitter that “the U.S. Government and American people are praying for the well-being of Abe-san, his family, and the people of Japan.”
Japan is a nation with strong firearms laws, and political violence there is uncommon. According to NHK, the gun used in the incident seemed to be a homemade weapon.
Iccho Itoh, the mayor of Nagasaki, was shot and assassinated by a yakuza criminal in 2007. In 1960, a right-wing youth with a short samurai sword killed the leader of the Japan Socialist Party as he was giving a speech.
At first, I assumed it was firecrackers, a bystander told NHK.
Tetsuya Yamagami, a resident of Nara, was named by police as the shooter’s suspect.
Prior his resigning in 2020 due to ill health, Abe had spent two terms as prime minister, making him the longest-serving leader in Japanese history.
Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in Japan, was in office from 2012 to 2020 before being forced to resign due to ulcerative colitis, a crippling digestive illness.
He announced his resignation as prime minister in 2020 after claiming that a long-standing health issue had reappeared.
Since he was a youngster, Abe has had ulcerative colitis, which he claims can be managed with medication.
It was “gut wrenching,” he told reporters at the time, to abandon so many of his objectives. He discussed his failure to address issues with Japanese who had been kidnapped by North Korea years before, a territorial conflict with Russia, and a change to Japan’s constitution that forbade war.
He was very divisive because of that last objective.
His zeal to normalize Japan’s defense posture infuriated many Japanese, and his ultra-nationalism infuriated the Koreas and China.
Due to a lack of public support, Abe was unable to officially rewrite the pacifist constitution, which was the country’s founding document.
Abe’s supporters claimed that his legacy would be a closer partnership between the United States and Japan, which would improve Japan’s defense capabilities.
However, Abe also alienated people by ramming his defense priorities and other controversial measures through parliament in face of vocal popular resistance.
Abe is a political dynamo who was raised to carry on his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi’s legacy as prime minister. His political discourse frequently centered on transforming Japan into a “normal” and “beautiful” country with a stronger military and a greater influence in world affairs.
Rahm Emanuel, the American ambassador to Japan, expressed shock and sadness over the shooting.
Abe-san has been a fantastic leader for Japan and a steadfast ally of the United States.
Abe-san, his family, and the people of Japan are in the prayers of the U.S. Government and the American people, he wrote on Twitter.