Shinzo Abe, Japan’s most influential former Prime Minister was shot dead

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s most influential former Prime Minister was shot dead

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s most influential former Prime Minister, stumbled on behalf of a junior politician from his party near the station in Japan’s ancient capital, Nara when he bleeds and collapses on the street on Friday morning. rice field. According to doctors, he was shot in the neck by a shooter who later admitted that he had come to kill him. Within six hours, Prime Minister Abe, Japan’s longest post-war leader, died at the age of 67. 

Until the attempted assassination of the campaign on Friday stopped, the public and Japanese press largely ignored the planned general election. On Sunday, the Abe Liberal Democratic Party was expected to head for victory.  Now the party must move forward in polls without a man who has led the agenda for the past decade and has the power to anoint future leaders even after leaving the Prime Minister’s Office.

 Fumio Kishida, the current Prime Minister, heard the news and returned to Tokyo in a hurry from the election campaign in northern Japan, but in a statement after doctors at Nara Abe Medical, the assassination was a “cowardly and barbaric act”. Told to. The university hospital has announced the death. Fumio Kishida said on Sunday, “I’m sorry that I lost a high-rise politician who has made great achievements in various fields,” and vowed to hold “a free and fair election that is the basis of democracy.” rice field.

The shooting is a crucial moment for Japan as it seeks to establish a stronger leadership position in the region as threats from neighbouring countries of China and North Korea increase. And the Japanese screen shows images of extreme violence from Ukraine and the United States, and people are worried that the countries they thought were safe might not.

 Immediately after the shooting at 11:30 am on Friday, police pursued Tetsuya Yamagami (41) and arrested him at the scene. He was charged with murder. Police officials confessed that he had used “homemade” weapons and planned to kill Prime Minister Abe because he believed that the former Prime Minister was involved in the “grudged” group.

At a press conference on Friday night, police officers from the Nara Prefectural Government said Yamagumi had built a double-barreled gun and police had found several similar guns at home near the premises. Authorities have not stated what charges will be filed against him or what punishment they seek.

Japan is one of the few developed countries that have been sentenced to death. Six people have been hanged in the last three years. The law allows the death penalty for murders, but the death penalty is rarely imposed for a single murder. The shock wave burst among the wider population unfamiliar with Japan’s political establishment and such violent crimes, especially in countries with some of the world’s strictest gun controls.

“I’m completely shocked,” said Ayane Kubota, 37, who came home from work in Tokyo and scrolled through Twitter to catch up with the news on Friday night. “It’s a very foreigner. I haven’t heard anything about gun violence here.  Nobusuke Kishi, Prime Minister Abe’s grandfather, was assassinated in 1960, shortly after he resigned. He is small transnationalism.

 He was stabbed in his thigh six times by a member of the group, but unlike his grandfather, he survived. Abe’s temporary monument was erected at the shooting site in the afternoon in Nara on Friday,  and 18-year-old Hijiri Mizokawa, along with his father and grandmother, fell on a pile of watermelon slices and bottles of candy and juice. I made the flowers bloom for the sake of. “I’m very scared. In spite of everything, I’m still unable to believe that such a horror could occur in Japan,” said Mizokawa.

 Condolences have been expressed from all over the world to Prime Minister Abe, who built ties with world leaders during his tenure of nearly eight years. As a Jetset diplomat, he not only worked closely with his allies but also reached out to countries like Russia with which Japan had a delicate relationship. As the United States shakes its commitment to Asia, Prime Minister Abe portrays Japan as a regional leader in favour of the increasingly aggressive free trade and rule of law against  China.

 At home, Prime Minister Abe will turn Japan into what he calls a “normal” country after pacifism is imposed on the constitution written by American occupiers after more than 70 years of war. I bet his legacy on that. .. In Sunday’s elections, the LDP is running on a platform that includes Prime Minister Abe’s proposal to amend the Constitution to acknowledge the existence of the Self-Defense Forces.

 According to the Ministry of Defense, the man bearing the suspect’s name served in the Japanese Navy Self-Defense Forces for three years from 2002 to 2005. Wearing a grey T-shirt and khaki pants, he stood quietly behind Abe when he started talking. Prime Minister Abe, who stood on a guardrail on a street near the station in Nara, praised Kei Sato (43), who was running for re-election in the House of Councilors, and shook his fist and shouted into the microphone.

 Suddenly people heard two loud pops, like the sound of a tire bursting. Masao Nakanishi, 80, who stood in front of Prime Minister Abe, said he saw the former Prime Minister fall down the street. In a mobile phone video broadcast by the public broadcaster NHK, a man in a grey shirt and khaki trousers was later identified as Yamagami and fired at Abe as smoke swirled from his gun. According to police, Abe turned around after the first shot and was hit by a second blast.

Campaign officials shouted for help, begged medical professionals, and asked for an oxygen mask or defibrillator, Nakanishi said. Three men in suits, believed to be part of Prime Minister Abe’s security, pushed the mountain group to the ground. He abandoned what appears in videos and photographs as a primitive homemade weapon. When ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene and rescuers performed CPR, Prime Minister Abe was covered with a large blue tarpaulin.

Rescue workers put him on a stretcher, put him on a patient evacuation helicopter under a tarpaulin cover, and took him to Nara Medical University Hospital. There he landed at 12:20 pm and was already in cardiopulmonary arrest. Doctors worked to stabilize him all afternoon, but hospital emergency medicine professor Hidetada Fukushima said Akie Abe was his wife, despite efforts to stop blood transfusions and massive heart bleeding.

 He said he died at 5 pm, about the same time as Akie Abe. , Arrived at the hospital.  Political leaders from various disciplines paid homage. Governor Yuriko Koike sometimes entwined with Prime Minister Abe, but shed tears as he talked about shock and “anger.” Kiyomi Tsujimoto, a veteran of the Constitutional Democratic Party and a current candidate for the Upper House election on Sunday, wrote on Twitter that she frequently discussed with Prime Minister Abe. The differences between our beliefs have caused us to fight many times,” she writes.”So I can never forgive this violence that kills words.”

 Prime Minister Abe could be a publicly divisive person because of his right-wing view of a constitutional amendment, the right to protect women’s names after marriage, and historical revisionism against Japan’s wartime atrocities. There is sex. In spite of the fact that he was dying in the hospital, several commentators attacked him on social media. However, his political opponent quickly stood up in his defence.

 Former opposition leader Renho cancelled the campaign plan on Friday and warned people not to post “heartless comments” on social media. “I don’t want to be tied to ideological beliefs, but I want to protect democracy and prevent this riot from continuing,” Saito wrote on Twitter.

In Nara, police blocked the shooting range early Friday night, and police continued to collect debris from bushes along roads and sidewalks. A watermark was seen on the road behind the yellow police cordon tape covering the morning blood stains.

The shocking assassination of  former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had formed a strong anti-China policy, evoked various reactions in the country on Friday, the government expressed shock and sympathy, and netizens were happy to “celebrate champagne.” Called. Abe (67) was shot dead from behind while giving a campaign speech in Nara. He was airlifted to the hospital, but he wasn’t breathing and his heart stopped. A hospital sentenced him to death later that day.

Prime Minister Abe was the longest-serving head of state in Japan before resigning in 2020 due to his poor health.

 “China was shocked” by the sudden death of Prime Minister Abe, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, was reported to have been told by Japan’s Kyodo News. Mr Zhao said Prime Minister Abe “contributed to improving and promoting the  development of Japan-China relations.”

 Long before Prime Minister Abe’s death was officially announced, Mr Zhao said in a cautious statement at a media briefing, “We were shocked to see this unexpected incident. We are tracking the situation. “I hope  Prime Minister Abe is in danger and will recover soon,”  he told, adding that China would like to condolence to his family.  But at the same time, he asked questions about the negative reaction on Weibo, as did Twitter in China. It is part of his mainland.

The internet users say whatever they like, and I don’t want to comment on that,” Zhao said. China condolences to Abe’s family, and this unexpected incident expresses pain in Abe’s strong policy towards China, including a campaign advocated and advocated by Prime Minister to revive the Japanese. His statement implied that it must not have anything to do with bilateral relationships.

Mr Zhao points out that her bilateral relations during her tenure were once helped by Prime Minister Abe to improve Japan-China relations, and Abe claims that China is part of her territory. I paid tribute to that. As one of China’s most solid friends, the former Prime Minister said he has spared no effort in fostering bilateral relations and has supported Taiwan for many years.

 Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen described Prime Minister Abe not only as a good friend of mine but also as a stubborn friend of Taiwan. He has been supporting Taiwan for many years and has spared no effort to promote the development of Japan-Taiwan relations, Tsai wrote on Facebook.  The Chinese have a love-hate relationship with Japan.

Historically, they fought two fierce wars. The first Sino-Japanese War was in 1894-95 and the second was in 1934-45 during World War II. It is called the Holocaust of Asia because millions of Chinese civilians have been killed. World War II led to the Nanjing Massacre, killing thousands of Chinese. Nanjing is a city in eastern China.

In recent years,  relations have deteriorated over China’s vast claims to the Senkaku Islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. But at the same time, Japan continued to be the top tourist destination for the millions of Chinese who gather in Japanese cities each year.

 First, Prime Minister Abe pushed ahead with policies to improve relations with China, meeting when President Xi Jinping visited Beijing to attend the APEC summit in 2014, followed by the G20 in Osaka in 2019. Attended the summit. However, he later became a a critic of the voice of China, urging Beijing not to offend other nations and to stop demanding more territory from neighbouring countries.

Prime Minister Abe has also deepened strategic partnerships with India, Vietnam and other regional powers, the EU and the United Kingdom, and strengthened Japan’s defences. Prime Minister Abe was one of the quad architects of the United States, India, Japan and Australia alliance aimed at countering China’s growing influence and military power.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma