Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe Assassinated, TV Azteca Bajío Reports
Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, died on Friday after a gunman shot him in the back during a campaign speech in the city of Nara, TV Azteca Bajío reported. Abe was 67 years old.
The Attack Outside a Nara Train Station
The shooting took place while Abe spoke outside a train station in Nara ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections. NHK footage captured the former leader raising his fist to make a point before two gunshots rang out, causing him to collapse while clutching his chest.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene as Abe began to bleed profusely. Officials transported him by air to a hospital nearby in Nara. Hidetada Fukushima, head of the emergency department of the Nara Medical University, stated that Abe suffered severe damage to his heart alongside two neck wounds that damaged an artery. Medical personnel administered massive blood transfusions, but Abe arrived showing no signs of breathing and with his heart already stopped. Authorities later pronounced him dead.
Police Arrest Tetsuya Yamagami for Targeting Abe
Police arrested a 41-year-old suspect at the scene. Authorities identified him as Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of the Japan navy. Officers confiscated a homemade firearm measuring roughly 15 inches, or 40 centimeters, in length from the location.
Investigators subsequently searched Yamagami’s apartment, where they seized similar handmade weapons and a personal computer. According to police reports, Yamagami answered questions calmly and admitted to targeting Abe. He stated that he planned the attack because he believed rumors linking the former prime minister to a specific organization, which police have not identified.
Political Reactions Across Japan
Fumio Kishida and members of his cabinet abandoned campaign events across the country and returned to Tokyo following the shooting. Kishida condemned the attack as cowardly and barbaric. Government officials confirmed that the elections for the less powerful upper house of the Japanese parliament would proceed as scheduled.
Shinzo Abe Led Japan for Six Years
Abe served as Japan’s leader for a total of six years. He first assumed office in 2006 at age 52, and at the time was considered the youngest prime minister of Japan, though he stepped down a year later due to health concerns.
He returned to power in 2012 promising economic revitalization through his signature policy formula known as “Abenomics,” aimed at pulling the country out of a deflationary stagnation. Abe ultimately resigned from office in 2020 after a chronic ulcerative colitis condition, which he had managed since adolescence, flared up again.