Former prime minister and Japan’s longest-serving leader Shinzo Abe 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 elections on Sunday, 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 organised support for his party’s local candidate. Six hours later, just after wife Akie had gotten to his bedside, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party made the announcement of his passing.
According to the doctors, Abe suffered two gunshot wounds in the right side of his neck and other, deeper body wounds that could have reached his heart. When he got at the hospital, he was “bleeding excessively” and had “no vital signs,” so doctors conducted resuscitation and gave him “a lot of blood transfusions.”
Twenty physicians spent hours trying to stem the bleeding, but in the end they were unable to save Abe, who was declared dead shortly after 5 o’clock local time.
Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old navy veteran, was apprehended on the spot while brandishing what appeared to be a homemade shotgun on suspicion of attempted murder.
Police claim he has subsequently confessed, saying them he was “frustrated” with Abe and that’s why he intended to kill him. Since then, potential explosives have been discovered at his house.
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 “absolutely unforgivable.” ‘I would like to use the most extreme words available to condemn this act,’ he added.
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.
Shortly before the shooting, Yamagami emerges from behind a flag after Abe has already arrived and greeted everyone.
As the politician begins to talk, he walks up behind him, takes the gun out of his backpack, and fires the first shot. Abe turns to see just as the second fatal shot is fired, and it seems to miss him.
Yamagami, according to the police, spent three years between 2002 and 2005 serving in Japan’s naval defence force. Officers have discovered suspected bombs while investigating his home.
Abe, a hardline conservative and economic reformer who led Japan out of decades of stagnant economic growth and established it as a global power, leaves behind one of the most impressive 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 only a year while suffering from the crippling bowel condition ulcerative colitis.
He took back 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 his bowel condition.
Abe is best-known for his ‘Abenomics’ agenda to revive Japan’s sluggish economy via a programme of vast government spending, massive monetary easing, and cutting red tape.
But he also pushed for reforms of Japan’s pacifist post-war constitution to allow the country to develop a fully-fledged military, and deepened ties with western allies – particularly with the US.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson led tributes to Abe as news of his death spread on Friday, saying: ‘His global leadership through unchartered times will be remembered by many.
‘My thoughts are with his family, friends, and the Japanese people. The UK stands with you at this dark and sad time.’
The attack came just before noon in the country’s western region of Nara where Abe had been delivering a stump speech with security present, but spectators able to approach him easily.
Footage broadcast by NHK showed him standing on a stage when a man dressed in a grey shirt and brown trousers begins approaching from behind, before drawing something from a bag and firing.
At least two shots appear to be fired, each producing a cloud of smoke.
As spectators and reporters ducked, a man was shown being tackled to the ground by security. He was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, reports said.
Local media identified the man as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, citing police sources, with several media outlets describing him as a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the country’s navy.
He was wielding a weapon described by local media as a ‘handmade gun’, and NHK said he told police after his arrest that he ‘targeted Abe with the intention of killing him’.
Witnesses at the scene described shock as the political event turned into chaos.
‘The first shot sounded like a toy bazooka,’ a woman told NHK.
‘He didn’t fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke,’ she added.
‘After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him cardiac massage.’
Abe was bleeding from the neck, witnesses said and photographs showed. He was reportedly initially responsive but subsequently lost consciousness.
Officials from the local chapter of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party said there had been no threats before the incident and that his speech had been announced publicly.
Kishida said ‘no decision’ had been made on the election, though several parties announced their senior members would halt campaigning in the wake of the attack.
The attack prompted international shock.
‘This is a very, very sad moment,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at a G20 meeting in Bali, saying the United States was ‘deeply saddened and deeply concerned’.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha was ‘very shocked’ at Abe’s shooting, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was ‘deeply distressed’ by the news.
– ‘Profoundly sad and shocking’ –
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, held office in 2006 for one year and again from 2012 to 2020, when he was forced to step down due to the debilitating bowel condition ulcerative colitis.
He was a hawkish conservative who pushed for the revision of Japan’s pacifist constitution to recognise the country’s military and has stayed a prominent political figure even after his resignation.
Japan has some of the world’s toughest gun-control laws, and annual deaths from firearms in the country of 125 million people are regularly in single figures.
Getting a gun licence is a long and complicated process for Japanese citizens, who must first get a recommendation from a shooting association and then undergo strict police checks.
Japan has seen ‘nothing like this for well over 50 to 60 years’, Corey Wallace, an assistant professor at Kanagawa University who focuses on Japanese politics, told AFP.
He claimed that the most recent event was probably the 1960 stabbing death of Inejiro Asanuma, the head of the Japan Socialist Party, by a right-wing teenager.
‘But two days before an election, of a (man) who is so prominent… it’s really profoundly sad and shocking.’
Additionally, he pointed out that Japanese politicians and voters are accustomed to close-up, personal campaigning.
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 teenager, 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 normalise Japan’s defence 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 defence capabilities. However, Abe also alienated people by ramming his defence 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 centred on transforming Japan into a “normal” and “beautiful” country with a stronger military and a greater influence in global affairs.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel expressed sadness and shock at the shooting. ‘Abe-san has been an outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the U.S. The U.S. Government and American people are praying for the well-being of Abe-san, his family, & people of Japan,’ he said on Twitter.