Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has died after he was shot twice while campaigning on the streets of the city of Nara, ahead of Sunday’s upper house elections. The incident took place at 11:30 this morning. A witness told NHK (Japan’s national broadcaster) that:
‘He (Abe) was giving a speech and a man came from behind. The first shot sounded like a toy. He didn’t fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke. After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him cardiac massage.’
Security attending to the former Japanese leader apprehended the suspected gunman, a 41-year-old, believed to be Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of the Japanese maritime self defense force, and his weapon was seized. The attack was captured on dramatic mobile phone footage.
Japanese politicians, even the most prominent, are remarkably accessible and exposed
The motivation for the attack can only be guessed at, though we have a few snippets of information. Police have reported that the suspect intended to kill Abe because he was ‘dissatisfied with him’ although the reason why is unclear. The fact that Abe’s appearance was apparently only released to supporters on Thursday might suggest the attack was opportunistic rather than carefully planned. There are reports that the gun was homemade.
Japanese politicians, even the most prominent, are remarkably accessible and exposed. The highest profile are usually accompanied, as Abe was, by security personnel but these are not primed to expect gun attacks, which are virtually unknown in Japan. Police are typically armed with ancient, almost never discharged, Smith and Wesson revolvers, but few Japanese will ever have seen a shotgun, let alone own one. Some yakuza own guns but as crime writer Jake Adelstein has noted, these are more for show with few dons even able to use them properly.
The attack has stunned Japan. Current prime minister Fumio Kishida looked visibly shaken when he gave his initial response to the media:
‘It is such a despicable act that took place during an election period, which is the foundation of democracy. It is totally unacceptable. I condemn the act in the strongest possible terms’
Abe is a controversial figure in some ways, with his long-held support for constitutional reform being his most divisive policy. His later years as prime minister – which ended when he stepped down in 2020 – were marred by a series of scandals, and some viewed his continued participation in politics with alarm. But neither he, nor anyone else in the staid world of recent Japanese politics has excited sufficient passion to make an assassination attempt, especially one involving a firearm, seem remotely likely.
Political violence in Japan is generally believed to be an alien concept, or at least a thing of the very distant past. Prime minster Inukai Tsuyoshi’s assassination by naval officers in an attempted coup-d’état, the ‘May 5th incident’ of 1932, was the most infamous incident.
But political violence never really went away. The 1960s saw considerable civil unrest. Abe’s own grandfather, also a prime minister was stabbed six times by a right-wing extremist as he left his official residence in July 1960. In that same year, US president Eisenhower was unable to land at Narita airport due to the hostility and aggression of waiting protesters. The 1970s saw kidnappings, including that of a self-defense force general by a group led by the writer and activist Yukio Mishima. The 80s and 90s saw sporadic incidents generally attributed to far-right extremists, such as the murder of Asahi Shimbun journalist in 1987 or the shooting of the mayor of Nagasaki city in 1990.
Things have been much quieter in recent years which makes today’s attack even more shocking. Whether today’s assassination is an horrific one-off, or a manifestation of a latent violence that had merely been lying dormant remains to be seen. Meanwhile, an appalled nation mourns the untimely death of Shinzo Abe.
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