Japan. Assassination attempt on Shinzo Abe. Japan’s former prime minister is shot [Aktualizacja]

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot with a firearm during a speech in Nara, 20 kilometers outside Kyoto. The witnesses gathered at the scene heard two shots. The attacker was arrested. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe’s condition was “critical”.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was hospitalized after he was attacked on Friday around 11.30am (local time, 4.30am Polish time) during an election rally outside the Yamato-Saidaiji train station in Nara, western Japan.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA), operating under the Ministry of the Interior and Communications, confirmed that the former head of government was shot in the right side of the neck.

Earlier, the public broadcaster NHK, citing information from the police, reported that Abe had been shot from behind. According to TBS, the bullet hit the former prime minister in the left part of the chest and neck. The Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that the politician was unconscious after the attack. The BBC, in turn, said the first shot was inaccurate and the second hit the former head of the Japanese government from behind.

NHK – citing rescuers – said that the former head of the Japanese government was hospitalized “with no signs of life”. The media reported that the former prime minister was bleeding.

Reuters agency – citing information from local media – said that just before the former prime minister collapsed, two firearms shots were heard. The suspect man, a 41-year-old resident of Nara, was arrested. He has been identified as Tetsuya Yamagami.

According to information provided by the public Japanese broadcaster NHK, non-professional, home-made weapons were used in the attack.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the conference, quoted by Reuters and CNN, among others, said Abe’s condition was “critical” and “doctors were fighting for his life.” “It is an unforgivable act,” Kishida said.

The attack on the former prime minister of Japan. United States “saddened and shocked”

Shinzo Abe is the son of former Japanese Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe and grandson of Nobosuke Kishi, Prime Minister of Japan from 1957-1960. He graduated in political science from Seikei University in Musashino.

He was Prime Minister of Japan in 2006-2007 and later in 2012-2020, and during that time he also served as the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party. He was the head of the Japanese government for the longest time in the history of the country.

On August 28, 2020, he announced that he would resign as prime minister for health reasons. He was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga, who held the office for a little over a year. From October 2021, the function is held by Fumio Kishida.

Main photo source: JIJI PRESS