Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 67, died after being shot on Thursday night (7 Friday morning local time) while delivering a speech during an election campaign in the city of Nara, Japan, shocking a country where political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled.
A man shot Abe in the back with an apparently homemade weapon as the former premier spoke, Japanese media reported.
It was the first assassination of a former Japanese prime minister since the days of pre-war militarism in the 1930s.
Local media reported that Abe was taken unconscious to a hospital. According to public television broadcaster NHK, the former prime minister appeared to be bleeding from his chest. Kyodo News reported that he suffered a cardiac arrest.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said hours after the attack that Abe was in serious condition. He condemned what happened as something unacceptable to the foundations of Japanese democracy.
The death was confirmed early this Friday morning (Brazil time) by the Japanese press.
Abe was reportedly attacked from behind at around 11:30 am Japanese time (23:30 GMT). At least two shots were heard. The shots would have been made from a shotgun. A man in his 40s has been detained, but the motives for the attack are not yet known. Police said the murder weapon was recovered.
The man suspected of shooting Shinzo Abe told police he was unhappy with the former Japanese prime minister and intended to kill him, national broadcaster NHK said, citing the police.
The former prime minister was attacked during an election campaign for the upper house of parliament. Elections are scheduled for Sunday (10).
“Whatever the reason [do ataque]such a barbaric act cannot be tolerated and we firmly condemn it,” said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. The government announced the creation of a group to investigate the attack. US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel , said he was “saddened and moved” by the event.
Abe was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history. He was in power for four terms, from 2006 to 2007, and then for eight straight years, from 2012 to 2020, until he resigned for health reasons.
From the conservative wing of Japanese politics, Abe became known abroad for his economic recovery strategy called Abenomics, in which he combined monetary easing, a major budget reactivation and structural reforms.
In a historic change in 2014, his government reinterpreted the country’s laws to allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War II. A year later, Japan adopted laws lifting the ban on exercising the right to defend an allied country under attack.
Abe was also instrumental in the success of Japan’s bid to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
