Aborn unconscious after assassination attempt – perpetrator arrested

Tokyo According to the Japanese broadcaster NHK, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is dead. The 67-year-old was shot during an election campaign speech on Friday.

A 41-year-old Japanese man was reportedly arrested at the scene for attempted murder. According to a media report, it was an ex-member of the country’s self-defense forces. This was reported by the Japanese television station NHK, citing sources in the Ministry of Defense. The Japanese man arrested at the scene of the crime was a member of the country’s navy for three years until 2005 and shot the ex-prime minister with a self-made gun. After his arrest, he said he was “unhappy” with Abe and wanted to “kill” him. The man’s name is said to be Tetsuya Yamagami.

Abe’s successor, Kishida, immediately abandoned his election campaign in Yamagata Prefecture in northern Japan and headed back to Tokyo by helicopter. His government set up a crisis team. The attack happened two days before Sunday’s upper house elections. Japan is considered one of the safest countries and has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

Abe grabbed his chest when he collapsed on the street, his shirt was smeared with blood, media reports said. On the way to a hospital, he was initially still conscious in the ambulance and responded to speech, it said.

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Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno strongly condemned the attack. According to the President of the House of Representatives, the assassination is an attack on the country’s democracy. “It is an attack on parliamentary democracy and cannot be tolerated,” said 78-year-old Hiroyuki Hosoda. There were also voices of concern from the opposition about the state of right-wing conservative Abe. “Violence against political activities is absolutely unacceptable,” said a Communist Party official. He prays for Abe.

Ancient imperial city of Nara

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot at at this intersection.

(Photo: via REUTERS)

Arrest of the alleged perpetrator.

A security officer is detaining the suspect, whose name media reports say is Tetsuya Yamagami.

(Photo: AP)

Controversial “Abenomics”

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also expressed dismay. “I am shocked by the news that Shinzo Abe has been gunned down,” the Greens politician said on Twitter on Friday. “My thoughts are with him and his family,” the message, written in English, continued. Baerbock is currently on the Indonesian island of Bali attending the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting.

Hospital in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture

A patient believed to be former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is brought into the building by medical staff after the arrival of a rescue helicopter.

(Photo: dpa)

The US ambassador to Japan was also shocked. “We are all sad and shocked” that the former prime minister was shot, said Ambassador Rahm Emanuel in a statement. “Abe-san” was a “outstanding leader of Japan and a staunch ally of the United States”. “The US government and people are praying for the well-being of Abe-san, his family and the people of Japan,” Emanuel wrote.

Abe ruled Japan from December 2012 to September 2020, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister. According to critics, Japan clearly moved to the right under him. The 67-year-old is one of the staunch advocates of a revision of the country’s pacifist post-war constitution.

Attack on ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

In Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan “forever renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation, and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.” Abe believes the constitution is not that of an independent nation, having been imposed by the occupying United States in 1946.

Economically, Abe wanted to lead Japan out of decades of deflation and stagnation with his “Abenomics” economic policy of cheap money, debt-financed economic stimulus injections and the promise of structural reforms. Admittedly, the number three in the global economy has meanwhile experienced the longest growth phase in years under Abe.

He also boosted tourism, which brought a lot of money into the country before the corona pandemic. At the same time, however, “Abenomics” has led to the profits being distributed unequally in recent years, his critics complained. A third of workers in Japan have no permanent job.

Elections to the House of Lords will take place in Japan on Sunday. The LDP is expected to win a landslide victory. This could gain momentum in the debate about amending the constitution.

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