A press conference at Nara University Hospital this morning confirmed the death of the former Japanese ruler. Death was announced at 5:03 pm local time (9:03 am on the Portuguese mainland), five hours after arriving at the hospital.
According to a doctor present at the press conference, Shinzo Abe “was no longer showing any vital signs” when he arrived at the hospital. Two shots at the former head of government hit the neck on the right and the chest on the left, reaching the heart.
Former premier bled ‘profusely’ and The doctor said he received several blood transfusions to save his life.
Japanese police have detained suspected attacker Tetsuya Yamagami, aged 40. He is charged with attempted murder and the use of “weapon equipment” in the attack. Judging by the photographs and video of the attack, it was a homemade weapon.
Shinzo Abe, 67, was Japan’s prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving leader of Japan in office.
Friday’s rally took place ahead of Japan’s Senate elections scheduled for Sunday. Abe spoke out in support of Kei Sato, a member of the upper house of parliament running for re-election from the city of Nara.
Visibly moved, current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said this Friday that he “cannot find the words” to respond to the death of Shinzo Abe. Kishida was Abe’s foreign minister before leading the Japanese government.
The attack on Shinzo Abe has been condemned by several world leaders and international organizations. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa says he is “shocked” by the assassination.
“The President of the Republic, shocked by the dastardly assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, expresses his respectful condolences to the Japanese state and rejects this deplorable display of violence,” reads a note published this Friday in presidency page.
In turn, the Portuguese government condemned the attack and stressed that “there is no place for violence in politics.”
“Portugal condemns the attack on former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and reaffirms our solidarity with all Japanese friends.”This was announced by Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho on Twitter.
Also on Twitter, the President of the European Commission mourned the death of the former head of government. “A remarkable man, a great democrat and defender of a multilateral world order, has died. I cry with his family, friends and all the Japanese people,” said Ursula von der Leyen.
In Japan, political violence is rare and firearms are heavily regulated. Assassinations were a common feature of domestic politics in the years leading up to World War II, but have hardly been seen in the past seven decades.
The last assassination of a major political figure occurred in 1960, when the then leader of the Japanese Socialist Party, Inejiro Asanuma, was stabbed to death by an extreme nationalist. Locally, the mayor of Nagasaki, Kazunaga Ito, was shot dead in 2007 by a gang member.
Otherwise, the country has the world’s strictest regulations for the purchase and possession of firearms. In principle, even firearms are prohibited in the country, but there are some exceptions, such as weapons used for hunting.
However, there are several steps to be able to buy and own a gun, from safety classes, several written exams, medical checks and confirmation of physical and mental health or background checks.
According to the newspaper The newspaper “New York Times, about 192,000 firearms were registered in the country in 2020the same number of weapons that are registered in the US state of Alabama, for example.
