Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Dead After Being Shot During Political Speech

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Last Updated: 8:00am
Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, falls on the ground in Nara, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nation's most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said. (Kyodo News via AP)

NARA, Japan (AP) — Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nation’s most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said.

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Abe, 67, was shot from behind minutes after he started his speech in Nara. He was airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment but was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead despite emergency treatment that included massive blood transfusions, hospital officials said.

Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene of an attack that shocked many in Japan, which is one of the world’s safest nations and has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country after the shooting, which he called “dastardly and barbaric.” He pledged to carry out Sunday’s parliamentary elections as planned.

Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart in addition to two neck wounds that damaged an artery, causing extensive bleeding. He was in a state of cardio and pulmonary arrest when he arrived at the hospital and never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.

Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020.

This aerial photo shows the scene of gunshots in Nara, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, NHK public television said Friday. (Kyodo News via AP)(Kyodo News via AP)

Public television NHK aired a dramatic video of Abe giving a speech outside a train station in the western city of Nara. He is standing, dressed in a navy blue suit, raising his fist, when two gunshots are heard. The video then shows Abe collapsed on the street, with security guards running toward him. He holds his chest, his shirt smeared with blood.

In the next moment, security guards leap on top of a man in gray shirt who lies face down on the pavement. A double-barreled device that appeared to be a handmade gun is seen on the ground.

Nara prefectural police confirmed the arrest of Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, on suspicion of attempted murder. They said an explosives team raided the suspect’s home to gather evidence. NHK reported that the suspect served in Japan’s navy for three years in the 2000s and that he said he wanted to kill Abe because he had complaints that were not related to political views.

Other videos from the scene showed campaign officials surrounding Abe. The former leader was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai. Elections for Japan’s upper house, the less powerful chamber of its parliament, are Sunday.

People react after gunshots in Nara, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, NHK public television said Friday. (Kyodo News via AP)

“I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” Kishida said as he struggled to control his emotions. He said the government planned to review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.

Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy. In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to grab extra editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting.

When he resigned as prime minister, Abe said he had a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he’d had since he was a teenager.

He told reporters at the time that it was “gut wrenching” to leave many of his goals unfinished. He spoke of his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution.

That last goal was a big reason he was such a divisive figure.

An employee distributes extra editions of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting on Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot, Friday, July 8, 2022, in Tokyo. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nation’s most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

His ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas 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 U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.

Loyalists said that his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capability. But Abe made enemies by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition.

Abe was a political blue blood who was groomed 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 bigger role in international affairs.

Many foreign officials expressed shock over the shooting.

A patient, believed to be Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is carried on a stretcher on arrival by medical helicopter at a hospital in Kashihara, Nara prefecture, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. Abe was shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan and was airlifted to a hospital but he was not breathing and his heart had stopped, officials said. (Kyodo News via AP)

Abe said he was proud of working while leader for a stronger Japan-U.S. security alliance and shepherding the first visit by a serving U.S. president to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain 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, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health.

The end of Abe’s scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japan’s defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan’s international profile.

Tetsuya Yamagami, bottom, is detained near the site of gunshots in Nara Prefecture, western Japan, Friday, July 8, 2022. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nation’s most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot by Yamagami during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said.(Katsuhiko Hirano/The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP)

 


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31 Comments
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Dovid
Dovid
1 year ago

He was a former Prime Minister!! Why was anybody able to get so close to him from behind? Also, he was hit with the second shot!! Where was security???

A REAL YID
A REAL YID
1 year ago

Fox News reports 6 gun deaths in Japan last year. Only 33,000 in USA.

so sad
so sad
1 year ago

a good man, friend of trump, supporter of the american way.
The war between the forces of totalitarianism (aka left, progressives, democrats, communists, fascists, islamics, etc) and the forces of freedom (aka conservatives, old school liberals before that term was hijacked) is not a symmetrical war. The forces of evil will use murder and other methods like stealing elections, theft, etc, all of which would be a sin for a law abiding conservatives. That is why, the losses are always on the same side, and it’s impossible to win a war like that. The wars are won in ways that are not pleasant. That is why historically tyrannical regimes are plentiful while there used to be only one USofA, now all but history.

PaulinSaudi
PaulinSaudi
1 year ago

Horrible news

Charles
Charles
1 year ago

He wasn’t wearing a mask.
Next time stay safe.

Aviva Cohen
Aviva Cohen
1 year ago

It seens this is the newest game.
Lets see who can be taken down.time to introduce morals and ethical behavior starting in pre school.
Obviously this is whats missing

Kollelfaker
Kollelfaker
1 year ago

Japan had the most restrictive gun laws and yet criminals seem to have no problem getting them just like nyc, Chicago,LA etc And yet murder rates are up from governments that ste afraid yo crack down on criminal elements

Searching for the magic Yarlmuka
Searching for the magic Yarlmuka
1 year ago

Yah. Yashica is good camera.