Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe was in serious condition after Friday’s attack. He condemned the shooting in the western city of Nara during Sunday’s Senate election campaign as an unacceptable attack on the very foundation of Japanese democracy.
Earlier, a hospital official said the 67-year-old appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest when he was transported to hospital, after initially regaining consciousness and responding.
Police say a 41-year-old man from Nara has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the shooting. NHK quoted the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police that he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him. Media said he had served in the Japanese army.
“Such act of barbarity cannot be tolerated,” Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters, adding that Abe had been shot at around 11:30 a.m. (local time).
NHK showed video of Abe giving a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots were fired, the view was briefly obscured and then security officials were seen tackling a man on the ground.
A cloud of smoke behind Abe was seen in another video shown in NHK.
A Kyodo photo showed Abe facing up in the street near a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. There were people around him, one of whom was giving chest compressions.
TBS Television reported that Abe had been shot in the left side of his chest and apparently in the neck as well.
Political violence is rare in Japan, a country with strict gun regulations. The weapon used in the shooting appeared to be a homemade firearm, NHK said.
“At first I thought it was fireworks,” a bystander told NHK.
In 2007, Nagasaki mayor Iccho Itoh was shot and killed by a yakuza mobster. The head of the Japanese Socialist Party was assassinated during a speech in 1960 by a right-wing youth with a samurai sword.
Abe served two terms as prime minister to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, before resigning in 2020 due to ill health.
But he has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and controls one of its main factions.
His protégé, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, faces a Senate election on Sunday, in which analysts say he hopes to emerge from Abe’s shadow and determine his premiership.
Kishida has suspended his election campaign after Abe’s shooting. The government said there was no plan to postpone the elections, but most major parties were halting their campaigns.
‘Very sad’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed deep concern about Abe’s condition.
“Our thoughts, our prayers are with him, with his family, with the people of Japan,” Blinken said on the sidelines of a G20 meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali. “This is a very, very sad moment. And we are waiting for news from Japan.”
The United States is Japan’s main ally.
In a tweet, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “Shocking news from Japan that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shot – our thoughts are with his family and the people of Japan at this time.”
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen said in a Facebook post: “I think everyone is as surprised and sad as I am. Taiwan and Japan are both democratic countries with a rule of law. On behalf of my government, I want violent and illegal acts.
“Former Prime Minister Abe is not only a good friend of mine, but also a loyal friend of Taiwan. He has supported Taiwan for many years and spared no expense to advance Taiwan-Japan relations.”
Rich political family
Abe is best known for his signature “Abenomics” policy of bold monetary easing and fiscal spending.
He also boosted defense spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.
In a landmark shift in 2014, his administration reinterpreted the post-war, pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War II.
The following year, legislation ended a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense or defending a friendly country under attack.
However, Abe did not achieve his long-held goal of revising the United States-drafted constitution by writing the self-defense forces, as the Japanese military is known, in the pacifist Article 9.
He was instrumental in winning the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo and harbored a desire to lead the Summer Games, which were postponed by a year to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Abe first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War II. After a year ravaged by political scandals, voter outrage over lost pension records and election abuse for his ruling party, Abe stopped citing ill health.
In 2012, he became prime minister again.
Abe comes from a wealthy political family that includes a father of a secretary of state and a great-uncle who was prime minister.
Abe was first elected to parliament in 1993 after his father’s death. He achieved national fame for taking a tough stance on unpredictable neighbor North Korea in a feud over Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang decades ago.
While Abe also tried to improve ties with China and South Korea, where bitter memories of war are deeply rooted, in 2013 he criticized both neighbors by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which is served by Beijing and Seoul. seen as a symbol of Japanese militarism in the past.