The former prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe reportedly shot dead. Shinzo Abe who is the former prime minister of Japan was giving a speech when the incident happened being shot from behind with a shotgun.
The Former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe Reportedly Shot Dead
Shinzo Abe which is the longest-serving prime minister of Japan on Friday was shot and killed while he was giving a speech in the city of Nara which is 40 minutes east of Osaka. The death of the former prime minister was reported first by the state broadcaster of japan NHK.
The former prime minister was aged 67 and was speaking ahead of the Japanese upper house elections scheduled to hold on Sunday. And according to local media, the police already reports that Abe was shot from the back with a makeshift shotgun. At the scene, a 41-year-old man of name Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested.
Video gotten off the scene shows the former prime minister delivering a stump speech by the curb of a street with no barriers or stage separating him from the audience. The video stops when a cloud of smoke erupts from the back of Abe.
What the Current Prime Minister Has To Say About the Assassination
‘This heinous act, we don’t know the detailed information yet,’ Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, ‘but elections are being held. This is the very foundation of democracy, and that such an incident took place is barbaric and malicious and it cannot be tolerated.’
Who is Shinzo Abe?
Shinzo Abe served as the prime minister of japan twice. He held the office of prime minister between 2012 and 2020 after following a one-year stint back in 2007. And all those eight years put together made him the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the country. He was never voted out of his prime ministership during his times but he, however, resigned at both times because of health issues stemming from ulcerative colitis.
Abe was considered a hardline conservative in his home country of Japan. He is known for his advocacy of revoking post-World War 2 pacifism of japan which means that the country is not allowed to have an army by strengthening its ‘self-defense force.’
The former prime minister is recognized internationally as having played a deft diplomat with china as he stood up to the rising power while at the same time smoothing tense relations prior to becoming a prime minister back in 2012.
Ahead of the elections on Sunday, Abe was in Nara campaigning for Kei Sato who is a member of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party in the upper house of the diet parliament of Japan.
Shinzo Abe Was Heir to One of Japan’s Political Dynasties
Abe was heir to one of the country’s political dynasties. The father of Abe, Shintaro Abe served as the foreign prime minister of Japan from 1982 to 1986. His grandfather Nobusuke Kishi was also a former prime minister of japan and he helped to found the Liberal Democratic Party which has been in power for 63 to 67 years since its founding. And in 1960, the grandfather of Abe survived an assassination attempt on his life that saw him stabbed up to six times.
Former Australian Prime Minister Condemned the Act
‘An attack on any democratically elected political leader is an attack on supporters of democracy everywhere,’ Kevin Rudd who was the prime minister of Australia during Abe’s first time as a leader of japan in 2007 said in a statement. ‘Shinzo Abe has been a dynamic political leader of Japan over many years, and we all hope that he will recover and resume his important responsibilities in the Diet.’
