The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Japan left stunned as ex-PM is assassinated
The Japanese nation remains stunned after the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
World leaders paid tribute to Mr Abe, who died after being shot in the street as he delivered a campaign speech.
The attack, in western Japan, left the nation bewildered – particularly as the country has some of the world’s strictest gun control laws.
Mr Abe, 67, who was the country’s longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara, although he was not breathing and his heart had stopped.
He was later pronounced dead after receiving massive blood transfusions.
Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Mr Abe suffered major damage to his heart, along with two neck wounds that damaged an artery.
He never regained his vital signs, Mr Fukushima said.
Police at the scene of the shooting in Nara arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan’s navy, on suspicion of murder.
Police said he used a gun that was obviously homemade – about 40cm long – and they confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby oneroom apartment.
The force said Yamagami was responding calmly to questions and had admitted attacking Mr Abe, telling investigators he had plotted to kill him because he believed rumours about the former leader’s connection to a certain organisation that police did not identify.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country.
He said the election, which chooses members for Japan’s less powerful upper house of parliament, will be held as planned.
“I use the harshest words to condemn the act,” Mr Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions.
He said the government planned to review security, but said Mr Abe had the highest protection.
Even though he was out of office, Mr Abe was highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai.
When he resigned as prime minister, Mr Abe said he had a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he had had since he was a teenager.
He told reporters at the time it was difficult to leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japan’s warrenouncing constitution.
That last goal made him divisive figure.
His push to create what he saw as a more normal defence posture angered many Japanese.
Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy.
Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related.