Agency
Nara (Japan): Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech an attack that stunned the nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.
The 67-year-old Abe, who was Japan’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, officials said.
No change of guard ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan on July 9
J&K UT announces one-day mourning
New Delhi/JAMMU: There will be no change of guard ceremony on the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday as the government announced a day of mourning as a mark of respect to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe (67), one of his nation’s most powerful and influential figures, died after being shot during a campaign speech on Friday in western Japan, according to NHK public television.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national mourning after news of Abe’s death was made public.
“The change of guard ceremony will not to be held this Saturday (July 9, 2022) on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan due to national mourning,” said a statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The change of guard ceremony is a military tradition that is held on Saturdays to enable a fresh group of the President’s Bodyguard to take charge.
Meanwhile, The government on Friday announced a one-day national mourning on July 9 for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who passed away today.
“As a mark of respect to Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan who has passed away on 8th July, 2022, the Government of India has decided that there shall be one day State Mourning on July 9, 2022 throughout the country,’ reads the notification issued by Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, Principal Secretary, General Administration Department.
“It has been decided that the National Flag shall fly at half-mast during the mourning on all buildings and places where it is flown regularly; and there shall be no official entertainment during the Mourning,” it added.
Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart, along with two neck wounds that damaged an artery. He never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.
Police at the shooting scene 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 15 inches (40 centimeters) long and they confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-room apartment.
Police said Yamagami was responding calmly to questions and had admitted to attacking 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.
Dramatic video from NHK showed Abe standing and giving a speech outside a train station in Nara ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election. As he raised his fist to make a point, two gunshots rang out, and he collapsed holding his chest, his shirt smeared with blood as security guards run toward him. Guards then leapt onto the gunman, who was face down on the pavement.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country after the shooting, which he called dastardly and barbaric.” He pledged that the election, which chooses members for Japan’s less-powerful upper house of parliament, would go on as planned.
I use the harshest words to condemn (the act), Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions. He said the government planned to review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.
Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai.
Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy. In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to grab extra editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting. Bouquets to Abe were placed near the scene of the killing.
When he resigned as prime minister, Abe said he had a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he’d 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 abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution.
That last goal made him a divisive figure. His ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.
Loyalists said that his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capability. But Abe made enemies by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition.
Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a normal and beautiful nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.
Tributes to Abe poured in from world leaders, with many expressing shock and sorrow. U.S. President Joe Biden praised him for “his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure. Above all, he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service.
Biden, who is dealing with summer of mass shootings in the U.S., said gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.
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. Tokyo had no gun incidents, injuries or deaths in the same year, although 61 guns were seized.
Abe was proud of his work to strengthen Japan’s security alliance with the U.S. and shepherding the first visit by a serving U.S. president to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was under control when it was not.
Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health.
The end of Abe’s scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of revolving door politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.
When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his Abenomics formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.
He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japan’s defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan’s international profile. (AP).