Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday on a street in Nara, western Japan. A gunman opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a speech in support of a candidate of his political party. The attack stunned the nation that has one of the world’s lowest rates of gun violence.
The 67-year-old Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020. He was standing to deliver his speech outside a train station in Nara ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election. As he raised his fist to make a point, two gunshots rang out. The former leader collapsed.
Abe was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. He received numerous blood transfusions as part of an attempt to sustain him, officials say.
Guards in Nara tackled the suspected gunman at the scene. Police identified him as a former member of Japan’s navy. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that the gunman said he wanted to kill Abe because he had complaints unrelated to politics.
Japan’s current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country. Kishida called the event “dastardly and barbaric.” He pledged that the election, which chooses members for Japan’s less-powerful upper house of parliament, would go on as planned.
“I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions. He says the government plans to review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.
Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party. He headed its largest faction, Seiwakai.
Opposition leaders also 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 had suffered with 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 made him a divisive figure. His Japan-centered ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China. And his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture nearly 80 years after the end of World War II angered many Japanese, who recall the effects of Japan’s aggression in earlier years. Abe failed to achieve his goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support. He spoke of making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.
Loyalists say that his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s own defense capability.
Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health.
When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and boost the economy with his multi-step “Abenomics” formula of stimulus and reform.
He won six national elections in all. Over the course of his service, he not only bolstered Japan’s defense role and its security alliance with the United States. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan’s international profile.
The Lord tests the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. — Psalm 11:5
(People in Tokyo watch TV news reporting that Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot on Friday, July 8, 2022. Abe was shot while giving a campaign speech Friday in western Japan. He did not recover from his wounds. Kyodo News via AP)
