The Japanese were in mourning on Saturday following the assassination, the day before, of their former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Many of them went to the scene where he was shot dead on Friday in the western city of Nara.
Japan was in shock on Saturday July 9, the day following the assassination by bullets during an election rally in Narain the west of the country, of its former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose body was repatriated to his home in Tokyo.
The assassination of one of the best-known politicians of the archipelago, which he governed for more than eight years, deeply bruised and moved Japan and abroad.
The alleged perpetrator of the attack, arrested at the scene, confessed to having deliberately targeted Shinzo Abe, explaining to the police that he resented an organization he believed he was affiliated with. Some Japanese media mentioned a religious group.
The 41-year-old man, a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force (the Japanese Navy) according to local media, has according to the police used a weapon “of homemade appearance”, on which further analysis was in progress .
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At the time of the attack, Shinzo Abe was campaigning in Nara (west) for Sunday’s senatorial poll, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Friday that preparations for the elections, “the foundation of democracy”, would continue normally.
Fumio Kishida, a member like Shinzo Abe of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, nationalist right), participated Saturday morning in a campaign rally in Yamanashi (west of Tokyo) in front of 600 people, declaring according to the daily Mainichi that “violence cannot take precedence over speech”.
“We are not going to let what happened yesterday happen once more,” said a security member quoted by the daily, who described a reinforced security system, with the installation of metal detectors and searches of spectator bags.
The body of Shinzo Abe arrived at his home in Tokyo early Saturday followingnoon, aboard a hearse in which Akie, his wife, had taken place, and which had left Kashihara hospital at dawn. , near Nara, where the former Prime Minister had been taken care of following his attack.
Hit by two bullets in the neck, he was declared dead a few hours later, despite the efforts of a team of twenty doctors.
According to local media, a wake is scheduled for Monday evening and the funeral will take place on Tuesday, with only the family and relatives of Shinzo Abe in attendance.
Tribute Series
The death of Shinzo Abe has upset Japan, where Fumio Kishida, of whom he was the mentor, denounced a “barbaric act” and “unforgivable”.
L’murder has been condemned worldwideUS President Joe Biden saying he was “stunned, shocked and deeply saddened” and French leader Emmanuel Macron paying tribute to “a great Prime Minister, who dedicated his life to his country and worked to bring balance to the world”.
China and South Korea, with which Japan has often rocky relations, also expressed their condolences. Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was “deeply saddened by this sudden death”.
In Australia, the Sydney Opera House will be illuminated on Sunday in tribute to Shinzo Abe.
Many people had been gathering since Friday at the scene of the attack. “I mightn’t sit idly by,” Sachie Nagafuji, 54, told AFP, who came with her son to lay flowers, adding: “I really respected him and trusted him as a man. Politics”.
Shinzo Abe, heir to a political dynasty, holds the record longevity as Prime Minister of Japanwhich he held in 2006-2007, then once more from 2012 to 2020.
Both nationalist and pragmatic, he made an impression with its bold economic policy dubbed “Abenomics”combining massive fiscal stimulus with an ultra-loose monetary policy.
Shinzo Abe also advocated a Japan free from its militaristic past, and dreamed of revising the pacifist Japanese Constitution of 1947, written by the American occupiers and never amended since.
He had been forced to resign for health reasonsbut had remained very influential within the PLD which he had led.
Strict gun regulations
Local PLD officials said they had received no threat before the attack, the images of which were looped on television channels.
We see the former head of government standing on a podium, when a loud bang rang out, followed by the release of smoke. The spectators, surprised, bend down, and we see several people tackle another on the ground.
“The first shot sounded like a toy,” a young woman told public broadcaster NHK. Shinzo Abe “did not fall and there was a big bang. The second shot was more visible, you might see a spark and smoke,” she added. After the second shot, people surrounded the fallen victim “and gave him a heart massage”.
A security service was present, but it was easy for spectators to approach Mr. Abe.
Japan has one of the strictest gun control laws in the world and the number of people killed by gunfire is extremely low.
With AFP and Archyde.com
