Arthur Greene
Japan’s longest ruling prime minister, Shinzo Abe, died after being shot whilst making a speech in the Japanese city of Nara on Friday.
Abe, aged 67, was only minutes into a campaign speech for the country’s upcoming national elections when a gunshot was heard. The former prime minister collapsed and was airlifted to hospital for emergency treatment.
Medics attempted to revive him but his heart had stopped. He was declared dead at 5:03 pm local time, five and a half hours after he was shot.
Police have arrested a 41-year-old man, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, on suspicion of carrying out the assassination. Yamagami has reportedly already confessed to killing Abe, telling police that he did not like the former prime minister and intended to kill him.
Police say the weapon believed to have been used in the attack was a homemade gun. They also found explosives and several other homemade weapons at Yamagami’s home, according to local media.
“This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections – the very foundation of our democracy – and is absolutely unforgivable,” said the current prime minister Fumio Kishida, whose devastation at the news was clear to see.
Abe, Japan’s most influential political figure in recent decades, had a short lived tenure as prime minister from 2006 to 2007. However, he was reinstated in 2012 and remained in his post until 2020.
He was a conservative politician who will be remembered for his signature “Abenomics” programme, which aimed to lift the world’s third-largest economy out of decades of deflation.
Image source: @ChrisMinnsMP
