Japan, attack on former PM Abe during a rally: soldier arrested

Japan. Attack on former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: the attacker, a former member of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, has been arrested.

Shinzo Abe, former Japanese Prime Minister, 67 years old, is in desperate conditions. This morning at 11,30:4,30 (XNUMX:XNUMX in Italy) he was hit in the back with two gunshots. The politician was in Nara where he was holding a rally in view of the elections for the renewal of the Upper House.

The man, then blocked by security agents, approached the former prime minister from behind and fired two shots at close range.

Shinzo Abe was hospitalized in a state of cardiac arrest - a formula that usually precedes the formal announcement of death in Japan - after being wounded by gunshots during an election rally late this morning. He is in very serious condition.

The perpetrator of the attack is a former soldier of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. The man, a 41-year-old from Naha, was immediately stopped by the former prime minister's security service and arrested on charges of attempted murder. The perpetrator of the attack used a homemade weapon hidden in a bag, as shown in images circulating in Japanese media.

Shinzo Abe is in critical condition, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in response to reporters' questions. "At the moment, doctors are doing everything they can. I hope and pray that the former Prime Minister survives," he added.

The 67-year-old Shinzo Abe was the politically longest-serving prime minister in post-war Japan, leading multiple governments between 2006 and 2007, and again from 2012 to 2020, when he resigned for health reasons. A promoter of an “institutional normalization” of the country, Abe fought to overcome constitutional pacifism, and has strongly promoted the process of strengthening national defense capabilities accelerated by the current executive. The name of the former premier is also associated with the so-called “Abenomics”: the set of expansionary economic policies and reform adopted by the former premier to try to overcome the deflationary stalemate of the third world economy and revive its growth.

Previous attacks in Japan. Although gun laws in Japan are much stricter than in the United States, cases similar to the attack on former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have occurred in the past, involving high-profile politicians.

In 1992, a right-wing extremist fired several shots at the then vice president of the Democratic Party, Kamemaru Shin, in Tochigi Prefecture, but missed.

In 1994, Prime Minister Hosokawa Morihiro was shot by a member of a far-right group in a Tokyo hotel, but was unharmed. In 2007, Nagasaki City Mayor Ito Itcho died in an attack organized by a criminal gang. Another case involved National Police Agency director Kunimatsu Takaji in 1995, who was seriously injured by gunshots fired outside his home.

Unlike the US, to buy guns in Japan you have to pass rigorous tests to determine your mental condition, and only certain types of rifles and carbines are allowed on the market. According to the most recent OECD data, the homicide rate in Japan stands at 0,2 per 100.000 inhabitants, compared to 0,5 in Italy, and 6 in the United States.