Status: 08.07.2022 05:26
Japan’s ex-Prime Minister Abe has been attacked during an election campaign. Several media in the country report shots at the prime minister, who was apparently taken to the hospital unconscious.
According to media reports, an attack has been carried out on the former right-wing conservative Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. A man shot Abe from behind during a campaign speech in the old imperial city of Nara in broad daylight, Japanese media reported on Friday, citing Abe’s ruling LDP party. The politician was said to be unconscious. He was bleeding from the neck. The police overpowered the perpetrator.
Significant shift to the right during Abe’s tenure
Abe ruled Japan from December 2012 to September 2020, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister. Under him, Japan had moved significantly to the right.
Abe is one of the staunch advocates of a revision of the pacifist post-war constitution. In Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan “forever renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes”.
Elections to the House of Lords will take place in Japan on Sunday. The LDP is expected to win a landslide victory. This could gain momentum in the debate about changing the constitution. The island kingdom of Japan has some of the strictest gun laws in the world and is considered one of the safest countries in the world.