Former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe67 years old, he died this friday because of firearm shots that he received during a campaign event in the city of Nara, in the center-east of the country, reported the NHK chain and health sources.
“According to a senior official of the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party, in power in Japan), former Prime Minister Abe died in the hospital” in the city of Kashihara, in the Nara region, where he was receiving medical treatment after the attack ” NHK said, quoted by the AFP and Sputnik news agencies.
Later, authorities of the health center confirmed the news, AFP collected.
At the time of the attack, he was leading an act in the framework of the campaign for the elections for the upper legislative chamber scheduled for this Sunday. “I was giving a speech and a man came from behind,” a young woman who participated in the campaign event told NHK pic.twitter.com/DdJPfsJBSD
—Telam Agency (@TelamAgency) July 8, 2022
From the Japanese government, the chief of staff Hirokazu Matsuno had officially confirmed that Abe “was shot at around 11:30 (Thursday night at 11:30 p.m. in Argentina) in Nara” but that he did not know “the condition of the former prime minister as a result of the attack.
In parallel, the official revealed that Police arrested a suspect noting that “a man believed to be the attacker is in custody.”
The Russian news agency Sputnik said that the alleged perpetrator of the attack is Tetsuya Yamagami41, who was arrested at the scene of the crime and did not resist during the arrest.
Yamagami is a Nara resident who in the 2000s did military service in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces for three years. His current occupation and his motives have not been released to the press.
Born on September 21, 1954, Shinzo Abe was the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Prime Minister of Japan from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020.
At the time of the attack he was leading a act in the framework of the campaign for the elections of the upper legislative chamber scheduled for this Sunday when shots were heard, AFP described based on reports from the NHK network and the Kyodo news agency.
From the Japanese Government, the chief of staff, Hirokazu Matsuno, revealed that the Police arrested “a man who is believed to be the attacker is in custody.” Security forces raided the home of the suspected killer.
? @nhk_newshttps://t.co/GcURVQ5Huw pic.twitter.com/9na1pumXkR
—Telam Agency (@TelamAgency) July 8, 2022
“I was giving a speech and a man came from behind,” a young woman who was participating in the campaign event and who said she witnessed the shooting attack told NHK.
He added: “The first shot sounded like a toy. He (for Abe) didn’t go down but then there was a loud bang; the second shot was more visible, you could see the bang and the smoke.”
Meanwhile, the chief of staff of the Japanese government, Hirokazu Matsunoexpressed that “whatever the reason (for the attack), a barbaric act like this cannot be tolerated and we firmly condemn it.”
A member of the Liberal Democratic Party told the Jiji news agency that after hearing the shot, Abe “collapsed and was bleeding from the neck,” according to AFP.
Several local media reported that the former leader had been attacked from behind, possibly “with a shotgun”, while the Japanese government announced the creation of a task force to investigate the incident in depth.
Argentina expressed its condolences
The Argentine Government expressed its condolences for the assassination of the former Japanese Prime Minister. In a first reaction -as happened with other governments, such as those of the United States and Russia- the Foreign Ministry issued a tweet in which it states that “Argentina expresses its most sincere condolences to the government of Japan and the family of the former prime minister Japanese, Shinzo Abe, who died after being the victim of a firearm attack”.
“We accompany the people of Japan in this difficult moment,” the message on the social network Twitter ends.
After the news of the shooting attack on the former prime minister became known, several countries spread their condolences and condemnations for the fact, including the US, Russia, China and the European Union.
The US ambassador to Tokyo, Rahm Emanuel, said he was “saddened and shocked” by the attack on Abe, whom he called “an exceptional leader of Japan and a staunch ally of the United States.”
Russia for its part described this Friday as “a monstrous crime” and “an act of terrorism” the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“We are convinced that those who conceived and committed this monstrous crime will be duly punished for this act of terrorism that is not and cannot be justified,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, Sputnik reported.
