A general view shows workers at the scene after an attack on Shinzo Abe at Kintetsu Yamato-Saidaiji station square in Nara on July 8, 2022.
STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty ImagesFormer Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a campaign event on Friday morning, according to public broadcaster NHK, citing officials from Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party.
Abe, 67, was said to be unresponsive as he was rushed to the hospital by helicopter after the attack which had taken place in the western city of Nara.
NHK said a 41-year-old suspect named Yamagami Tetsuya had been arrested for attempted murder and police had also seized a gun at the scene of the shooting that appeared to be handmade.
“A barbaric act like this is absolutely unforgivable, and we condemn it strongly,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
Video footage shared on social media showed Abe giving a speech near Yamato-Saidaiji station when a cloud of white smoke appears behind him. Witnesses told local media they heard two loud bangs before Abe collapsed to the ground.
Tetsuya Yamagami, bottom, is detained near the site of gunshots in Nara.
Katsuhiko Hirano/The Yomiuri Shimbun via APAbe was in Nara to campaign for the Upper House election scheduled for Sunday. Officials from the Liberal Democratic Party said that Abe’s speech had not been announced publicly beforehand, and they had not received any threats before the shooting.
Abe had been the country’s longest-serving prime minister. The former LDP leader held office from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020, when he had to step down due for health reasons.
Abe had pushed for the revision of Japan's pacifist constitution during his time in office and continued to play a prominent role in politics afterward. His father, Shintaro Abe, served as foreign minister and his grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, had served as prime minister between 1957 and 1960.
Abe had also launched a three-pronged economic strategy, which came to be known as "Abenomics," aimed at reviving Japan’s economy with monetary easing, fiscal spending and regulatory reforms.
The shooting comes as a shock for a country that has suffered little political violence in the past and maintains strict gun control laws.
Shinzo Abe speaks during a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo on August 28, 2020.
FRANCK ROBICHON/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesUpdate: July 8, 2022
This story’s headline and first paragraph were updated with Shinzo Abe’s passing.
