Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dies after being shot during a campaign rally in Nara

8 (EUROPE PRESS)

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died this Friday after being shot during a campaign rally in the town of Nara, located in the southwest of the country, according to sources from his party, the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD).

The confirmation of the death, collected by the Japanese news agency Kiodo and the NHK television network, has come hours after Abe went into cardiorespiratory arrest during his evacuation to a hospital after being shot in the back.

安倍さんが本当に撃たれてる。。
日本とアメリカの関係を良好にしてくれ、
歴代最長の総理として活躍してたのに。
本当に悔しい。
今は心肺停止状態らしいけど
復帰して欲しい。頑張って！医者！！#安倍元総理 pic.twitter.com/eu4oOlg5jV

— 新橋一太 (@ffff_u29) July 8, 2022

The suspect, who has been arrested, fired two shots during a speech by Abe near a train stop ahead of the country’s upcoming legislative elections. According to local media, the second of them hit the former prime minister in the back, after which he fell to the ground.

The detainee has been identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41 years old and a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, without for the time being the causes of the event have been clarified, which has been branded by the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, of ” barbaric act.

Yamagami would have stressed in his statements to the Police that “it is not a problem with Abe’s political views”, as reported by the Japanese newspaper ‘Asahi Shimbun’. The weapon used by the attacker to fire the shots has been seized at the scene of the incident.

Abe, 67, held the post between September 2006 and September 2007 and later between December 2012 and September 2020. In the latter case, he resigned due to health problems.

Thus, he became the prime minister who has been in office the longest, after surpassing, precisely, the record held until now by his great-uncle Eisaku Sato, in office between November 1964 and July 1972.