of japan former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe He was in critical condition after being shot during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara on Friday.
Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a news conference in Tokyo that doctors were fighting to “save” the 67-year-old’s life, after officials said Abe had heart failure while being taken to hospital.
“It’s not a forgivable act,” said Kishida, who suspends his own campaign schedules and heads back to Tokyo after the shooting.
Police said a 41-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of shooting.
“Such vandalism cannot be tolerated,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters at a media briefing shortly after the attack.
Former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, center, falls to the ground in Nara, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. NHK public television said Friday that Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan. (Kyodo News via AP).
kyodo news And public broadcaster NHK Said that witnesses heard shots fired, after which Abe fell to the ground and was bleeding. An NHK reporter present at the scene said they heard two consecutive explosions during Abe’s speech.
Footage aired by NHK showed Abe bloodied on his chest when he fell, while several security guards ran towards him.
Officials said Abe was shot in the neck, was not breathing and his heart had stopped. Fire officials and paramedics said he was able to speak after the fall but later fell unconscious.
The term heart failure means that the heart cannot pump blood adequately and cannot supply needed oxygen to the rest of the body. In Japan, officials sometimes use the term to describe situations where victims are no longer alive, but preceded by a formal declaration of death.
The attack was a blow to a country that is one of the safest in the world and has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.
This aerial photograph shows a view of a barrage of gunfire in Nara, western Japan, on Friday, July 8, 2022. NHK public television said former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot during a campaign speech in western Japan on Friday. Friday. (Kyodo News via AP) (Kyodo News via AP).
Nara Prefectural Police confirmed the arrest of a suspect for alleged attempted murder and identified him as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami. NHK reported that the suspect served in the Marine Self-Defense Force for three years in the 2000s.
Video broadcast by NHK showed security guards leaping over a man wearing a gray shirt, lying face down on a sidewalk. A double barreled device can be seen on the ground, which appears to be a hand-held gun.
Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, serving twice in the job from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020. Yet he remained a powerful political force in Japan during his retirement. He was delivering an election campaign speech on Friday ahead of Sunday’s election to the upper house of parliament.
All major political parties said they would also stop campaigning, and cabinet officials were ordered to return to Tokyo.
“I can’t believe something like this can happen in the 21st century,” Yoshitaka Sakurada, a former Tokyo Olympic minister, walks into the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters. “There is still Russia, which was beyond expectations, but I can’t believe something like this could happen in Japan.”
Abe resigned in 2006, a year after he was first elected, when a chronic health problem reappeared. He has had ulcerative colitis since adolescence and has said that the condition was controlled with treatment.
After recovery, he was re-elected in 2012 and led the country until 2020, when he stepped down for the second time due to ill health.
Rahm Emanuel, the new US ambassador to Japan, said he was “saddened and shocked” by the news of the shootings.
He wrote on Twitter, “Abe-san has been an outstanding leader of Japan and an unwavering ally of America, the US Government and the American people praying for the well being of Abe-san, his family and the people of Japan.”
Other world leaders echoed their shock, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who called the attack “disgusting”.
When he stepped down for the second time, Abe told reporters that leaving many of his goals unfinished was “to break the gut.” He spoke of his failure to resolve the issue of the Japanese kidnapped by North Korea years earlier, a territorial dispute with Russia, and an amendment to Japan’s post-war constitution.
That last goal was a big reason why he was such a divisive person.
His hyper-nationalism angered Korea and China, and his pressure to normalize Japan’s defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the pacifist constitution prepared by America because of the support of the poor masses.
Abe’s supporters said his legacy was a strong US-Japan relationship that was meant to enhance Japan’s defense capability. But Abe also made enemies by forcing his defense goals – including more spending – and other contentious issues through parliament despite strong public opposition.
Abe is best known for his signature “Abenomics” policy, which includes bold monetary easing and fiscal spending.
Political violence is rare in Japan. In 2007, Icho Itoh, the mayor of Nagasaki, was shot dead by a yakuza gangster. The head of the Japan Socialist Party was assassinated in 1960 by a right-wing youth during a speech with a samurai short sword.
—With files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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