KASHIHARA, NARA : Japan on Saturday mourned the assassination of
former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as the man who fatally gunned him
down told police that he initially planned to attack a leader of a religious
group.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, has also said he had a grudge against a “specific
organization” — possibly the religious group — that he believed was linked
to Abe, according to the police.
Abe died Friday after being shot from behind during a stump speech near a
train station in Nara Prefecture. Yamagami was arrested at the scene where
he was wielding a homemade gun.
Yamagami has denied he committed the crime because he was opposed to
Abe’s political beliefs, authorities said.
Shortly before 6 a.m., a funeral hearse carrying Abe’s wife, Akie, and
believed to be transporting the former leader’s body left the hospital in
Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, where he was treated.
The murder of Japan’s best-known politician rattled the country and sent
shock waves around the world, particularly given the nation’s low levels of
violent crime and strict gun laws.
Abe was delivering a stump speech ahead of Sunday’s Upper House election
when he was shot, and campaigning was resuming Saturday, with
politicians saying they were determined to show the murder could not stop
democracy.
The LDP and coalition partner Komeito are expected to cement their
majority in parliament in Sunday’s Upper House election.
Doctors at Nara Medical University Hospital said Friday that Abe showed
no vital signs when he arrived and died of enormous blood loss, despite
massive transfusions.
They described multiple wounds to the prime minister’s neck, with the
internal damage reaching as deep as his heart.
Abe’s murder shook Japan, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida describing
the killing as a “barbaric act” that was “unforgivable.”
He was visibly emotional after the former leader’s death was confirmed,
pronouncing himself “lost for words”.
International reaction was similarly stark, with U.S. President Joe Biden
saying he was “stunned, outraged and deeply saddened,” and ordering flags
on U.S. government buildings to fly at half-staff.
Kishida spoke with Biden on Saturday, with the U.S. leader offering his
condolences.
Biden noted the “unwavering confidence in the strength of Japan’s
democracy” and the two leaders also discussed how Abe’s legacy will live on
as the two countries continue the important task of defending peace and
democracy, according to the White House.
Kishida told reporters after the phone talks that he had conveyed to Biden
Japan’s willingness to “protect democracy without yielding to violence.”
Even regional powers with whom Abe had clashed expressed condolences.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the killing an “unacceptable
act” and the Chinese Embassy in Japan praised Abe’s “contribution to the
improvement and development” of ties.
Investigators were still piecing together a picture of the man behind the
assassination and his motives. Police searched Yamagami’s home Friday,
finding items that are believed to be explosives and homemade guns, they
said.
Yamagami, now unemployed, was working at a manufacturer in the Kansai
region from around the autumn of 2020, but quit in May this year, according
to a staffing agency employee. He was previously a member of the Maritime
Self-Defense Force for about three years through August 2005.
Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed Yamagami, dressed in a gray
shirt and brown trousers, approaching from behind before drawing a
weapon from a bag.
At least two shots appeared to be fired, each producing a cloud of smoke. As
spectators and reporters ducked, he was tackled to the ground by security.
“The first shot sounded like a toy bazooka,” a woman at the scene told NHK.
“He didn’t fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible,
you could see the spark and smoke.”
By Friday night, a steady stream of mourners came to lay flowers and pray
for their former leader, a man who was Japan’s longest-serving prime
minister and easily the country’s most recognizable politician.
“I just couldn’t sit back and do nothing. I had to come,” said Nara resident
Sachie Nagafuji, 54, visiting the scene with his son.
Officials said there had been no threats made against Abe, who was
stumping for his ruling Liberal Democratic Party when he was shot.
Abe was the scion of a political family and became the country’s youngest
postwar prime minister when he took power for the first time in 2006, aged
52.
His turbulent first term ended in resignation for health reasons, but he
returned to power in 2012 and stayed in office until the return of his
ulcerative colitis forced a second resignation in 2020.
His hawkish, nationalist views were divisive, particularly his desire to
reform the country’s pacifist Constitution to recognize the country’s
military, and he weathered a series of scandals, including allegations of
cronyism.
But he was lauded by others for his economic strategy, dubbed Abenomics
and his efforts to put Japan firmly on the world stage, including by
cultivating close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump.