A man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with an apparently homemade handgun on Friday as he spoke on a traffic island in the western city of Nara.
It was the first assassination of a sitting or former Japanese prime minister since the days of antebellum militarism in the 1930s.
Before Abe’s death was announced, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the shooting in “the strongest terms”, while Japanese people and world leaders were shocked at the violence in a country where political violence is rare and weapons are tightly controlled.
“This attack is an act of brutality that took place during the elections – the bedrock of our democracy – and is absolutely unforgivable,” said Kishida, who is struggling to control his emotions.
A fire officer had said that Abe appeared to be in cardiac arrest when he was flown to hospital.
Police said a 41-year-old man suspected of committing the shooting has been arrested. NHK quoted the suspect, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, telling police that he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him.
Abe was giving a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots were fired at around 11:30 a.m. (local time). Security officials then saw a man in a gray T-shirt and beige pants attack.
“There was a loud bang and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was on the scene, told Reuters, adding that the gun was the size of a television camera.
“With the first shot nobody knew what was going on, but after the second shot, something that looked like special police grabbed him.”
transfusions
Earlier, Kyodo news service published a photo of Abe lying face up in the street near a guard rail, blood on his white shirt. There were people around him, one of whom was giving chest compressions.
Nara’s emergency services said he was injured on the right side of his neck and left collarbone. His brother, Defense Secretary Nobuo Kishi, had said that Abe was receiving blood transfusions.
NHK showed live footage of Abe’s wife, Akie, en route by train to the hospital where he was being treated.
Airo Hino, a political science professor at Waseda University, said such a shooting was unprecedented in Japan. “There’s never been anything like it.”
Senior Japanese politicians are accompanied by armed security officers, but often get close to the public, especially during political campaigns when they give roadside speeches and shake hands with passers-by.
In 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki 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. A few other prominent post-war politicians were attacked but were not injured.
The suspected shooter was a Nara resident, police said. Media said he served three years in the Japanese military until 2005. Defense Minister Kishi declined to comment.
‘Very sad moment’
Earlier, 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.”
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.”
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen said in a Facebook post: “I believe everyone is as surprised and saddened as I am. Taiwan and Japan are both democratic countries with the 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 spares no expense to further the progress of relations between Taiwan and Japan.”
Rich political family
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.
Kishida, Abe’s protégé, had hoped to use the election to emerge from Abe’s shadow and determine his premiership, analysts said. Kishida suspended his election campaign after the shooting.
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 US-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.