Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe dies after shooting

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died on Friday after he was shot while delivering a stump speech in the western city of Nara.

Abe, the nation’s longest-serving prime minister, was just minutes into his address when gunfire broke out around 11:30 a.m. local time. He was campaigning at the time for Sunday’s elections for the parliament’s upper house.

Local fire department official Makoto Morimoto said Abe was in cardio and pulmonary arrest after being shot, but that his heart stopped while he was being airlifted to Nara Medical University. The ex-prime minister sustained two gunshot wounds and was later pronounced dead despite emergency treatment that included massive blood transfusions, according to hospital officials.

He was 67 years old.

A male suspect was taken into custody at the scene of the shooting. According to NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was arrested in connection with the attack, which has left citizens across Japan — a nation with strict gun laws where such violence is incredibly rare — in total shock.

NHK also captured the violence on camera and has aired footage showing Abe, dressed in a blue suit and standing in front of a train station with his fist raised, right before he was shot. Additional footage sees him collapsed and bloodied in the street, with several security guards racing toward him. He was reportedly struck from behind.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who belongs to the same political party as Abe, was traveling at the time by helicopter from his own campaign destination of Yamagata, in northern Japan. The nation’s leader immediately returned to Tokyo in wake of the shooting, calling it “dastardly and barbaric.”

He vowed Sunday’s parliamentary elections would continue as planned.

Kishida, struggling to battle back his emotions, said Abe “was a personal friend, with whom I spent a lot of time.”

“I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” he added.

Political leaders and foreign officials around the world similarly decried the brutal assassination.

“We are shocked and saddened to hear about the violent attack against former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” the White House said in a statement shortly afterward.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers at a meeting in Bali, called Abe’s death “profoundly disturbing” and a “personal loss for so many people.

“For the United States, Prime Minister Abe was an extraordinary partner and someone who clearly was a great leader for Japan and the Japanese people,” Blinken said, adding that Abe, during his tenure, “brought the relationship between our countries — the United States and Japan — to new heights.”

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called the shooting an “intolerable act” while Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his “deepest condolences to his family and the people of Japan at this difficult time.”

Abe initially rose to prominence in national politics in the early 2000s. He became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but abruptly resigned a year later amid a series of political scandals. His departure sparked what would later be dubbed a revolving door of politics, during which few long-term policies were established.

When he returned to office in in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation, including with his economic policies later nicknamed “Abenomics.” The three-prong approach, intended to jumpstart the stagnant economy, called for a combination of monetary easing, increased government spending as well as other economic changes. He also strived to build Japan’s defense role and capability as well as its security alliance with the U.S.

Abe, the grandson of former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, won a total of six national elections, firmly establishing himself as a political fixture and world leader. His father, Shintaro Abe, also served as chief cabinet secretary, which is often viewed as the nation’s second most powerful role.

By the time he resigned in 2020, citing medical issues, Abe had become modern Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. His tenure surpassed that of Kishi, who led Japan from 1957 to 1960.

With News Wire Services