Abe bled to death, said a doctor at Nara University Hospital. After the assassination, the ex-prime minister was taken to the hospital by helicopter and, according to media reports, was said to have been in cardiopulmonary arrest. After the shots, 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. Kyodo and NHK both reported that Abe appeared to have been hit in the neck. “He was giving a speech and a man came from behind,” a woman on the spot told NHK. The attacker fired at least two shots. “After the second shot, people surrounded him (Abe, ed.) and gave him chest compressions.”
Media: Assassin was ‘unhappy’ with Abe
A 41-year-old Japanese man was arrested at the scene for attempted murder. According to a media report, the man is said to be an ex-member of the country’s self-defense force, the Japanese television broadcaster NHK reported on Friday, citing sources in the defense ministry. The man served in the country’s navy for three years until 2005, NHK reported.
The firearm should be self-made. The man is said to have shot the politician out of dissatisfaction. After his arrest, NHK reported, he is said to have said he was “unhappy” with Abe and wanted to “kill” him. According to other reports, the assassin said he had “no grudges once morest Abe’s political beliefs.” The background to the assassination is apparently not yet entirely clear.
Government sets up crisis team
Abe’s successor, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, immediately called off his election campaign in Yamagata Prefecture in northern Japan and took a helicopter back to Tokyo. His government set up a crisis team. Kishida condemned the attack. He described the attack as a “barbaric act” and condemned it “strongly.” Kishida said the assassination was an unacceptable attack on the very foundations of Japanese democracy. He was not aware of any motive for the “absolutely unforgivable” attack.
According to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the attack on Abe is an attack on the country’s democracy. “It is an attack on parliamentary democracy and cannot be tolerated,” 78-year-old Hiroyuki Hosoda said on Friday. The opposition also condemned the attack. “Violence once morest political activities is absolutely unacceptable,” said a Communist Party official.
Two days before the upper house election
The attack came two days before the House of Lords elections on Sunday. Abe and Kishida both belong to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The party leads in the polls by a wide margin. Japan is considered one of the safest countries and has one of the toughest gun laws in the world.
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.
In Article Nine 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. The LDP is expected to win a landslide victory in Sunday’s upper house elections. This might gain momentum in the debate regarding amending the constitution.
Ambiguous record for “Abenomics”
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 world 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 CoV 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.
USA: “Sad and shocked”
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed deep sadness and concern. “Our thoughts, our prayers are with him, with his family, with the people of Japan,” Blinken said on the sidelines of the G-20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali, according to the New York Times. China expressed shock.
The US ambassador to Japan was 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.
The warring Russian President Vladimir Putin also condemned the assassination in a letter of condolences to the family of the killed politician. “The hand of a criminal ended the life of an outstanding statesman,” Putin wrote in a telegram released by the Kremlin on Friday. Abe led the Japanese government for a long time and did a lot for “good-neighborly relations between our countries”.
Nehammer condemns assassination
Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) condemned the assassination “strongly”. “My thoughts are with him & his family at this difficult time,” it said in a tweet. EU Council President Charles Michel also said he was “shocked and saddened by the cowardly attack”. The “brutal and cowardly murder” of Abe “shocked the world,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Twitter on Friday. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a similar statement.
The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was stunned. The deadly assassination made him deeply sad, the SPD politician wrote on Twitter on Friday. His deepest sympathy goes to Abe’s family and to Japanese Prime Minister Kishida. “Even in these difficult hours, we stand closely by Japan’s side,” assured Scholz.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his dismay. “Deeply shocked by the disgusting attack on Shinzo Abe,” Macron wrote on Twitter on Friday morning. His thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the “great Prime Minister” Abe. France stands with the Japanese people.
Dismay also at Johnson
Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was also appalled. “Absolutely appalled and saddened by the despicable attack on Shinzo Abe,” Johnson wrote on Twitter on Friday. He added, “My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”
Israel’s ambassador to Japan also reacted with horror. Gilad Cohen wrote on Twitter on Friday that he was “absolutely shocked” by the news. “As one of Japan’s best-known leaders, Abe-san was among the architects of modern Israel-Japan relations, serving as a major catalyst for the thriving bonds we see today,” it said.
