+++ breaking news +++
Japan’s ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe dies after being assassinated
© star
Japan’s ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not survive the assassination attempt on him. He succumbed to his gunshot wounds in hospital. A man had previously shot him during an election campaign appearance.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shot dead. The 67-year-old politician did not survive an assassination attempt in the city of Nara on Friday, Japanese media reported unanimously on Friday. A Japanese fired two shots at the right-wing conservative politician on the street around 11:30 a.m. local time with an apparently home-made gun as he was delivering an election campaign speech. The assassin is said to be a 41-year-old former member of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. He was “dissatisfied” with Abe and wanted to “kill” him, the man was quoted as saying by NHK after his arrest.
Abe ruled Japan from December 2012 to September 2020, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister. According to critics, Japan clearly moved to the right under him. The 67-year-old was one of the staunch advocates of a revision of the country’s pacifist post-war constitution. Economically, he wanted to use his “Abenomics” baptized economic policy of cheap money, debt-financed economic injections and the promise of structural reforms to lead Japan out of economic stagnation.
Japan in shock
The attack in one of the safest countries in the world, which has extremely strict gun laws and a zero-tolerance policy towards firearms, shocked not only the people of Japan. The attack happened shortly before elections to the upper house of parliament this Sunday. “It is an attack on parliamentary democracy and cannot be tolerated,” said House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda. Abe’s successor and party colleague Fumio Kishida condemned the attack “strongly”.