About an hour ago, reporting began to be published stating that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been shot at a campaign event!
BREAKING: Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot at a campaign event Friday, broadcaster NHK reported, citing Japanese police sources. NHK reported Abe was showing no vital signs. At least two gunshots were heard on-site.
More to come. https://t.co/vDgmlt99UQ
— Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee) July 8, 2022
Police identified the suspect as a man in his 40s named Tetsuya Yamagami, from Nara, according to Japanese media reports. He was arrested on-site for attempted murder, and a gun has been seized.
More to come. https://t.co/vDgmlsS6SQ
— Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee) July 8, 2022
From Michelle Ye He Lee and Julia Mio Inuma of The Washington Post:
TOKYO — Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot at a campaign event Friday, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing Japanese police sources.
Party officials cited in Japanese media said Abe was unconscious, and NHK reported that the 67-year-old was showing no vital signs. He had been giving a speech in Nara, east of Osaka, ahead of elections for Japan’s upper house of parliament on Sunday.
At least two gunshots were heard on-site. A suspect was arrested on-site for attempted murder, and a gun has been seized, NHK reported. Police later identified the suspect as a man in his 40s named Tetsuya Yamagami, from Nara, according to Japanese media reports.
Gun laws in Japan are among the world’s strictest, and shootings are extremely rare.
Footage aired on NHK showed Abe giving a speech, then a plume of smoke forming behind him as he collapsed. Officials ran to apprehend the shooter, who appeared to be positioned behind Abe.
Videos posted on social media from the campaign event showed a chaotic scene with Abe, unmoving, lying on the ground as attendees yelled for an ambulance.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno confirmed that Abe was shot around 11:30 a.m. Friday and said the government is working to confirm his condition. All cabinet members campaigning or helping campaigns have been asked to return to Tokyo, he said.
“Such violence cannot be permitted,” Matsuno said.
Much more at the link!
There is video of the shooting, I’m not posting it, you can find it fairly easily if you want to see it. I’ve watched the video and seen the stills and it appears the suspected shooter was using some form of short barrelled shotgun. It is hard to tell, because it looks like he tried to disguise the weapon as a telephoto lens on a camera – at least that’s what it looks like to me – whether this was a professionally made shotgun he altered or a home made shotgun built for this assassination attempt.
Given the have the suspect in custody expect the next updates to be about Abe’s condition and then a possible motive.
Open thread!
Old Man Shadow
Unlike here, it’s actually shocking to hear of something like this in Japan.
Omnes Omnibus
If he was shot in the back at close range by a sawed-off shotgun, I would not think his prognosis is going to be good.
cintibud
I saw the statement “lack of vital signs”. Isn’t that the same thing as dead?
Horrible
Yutsano
I’m honestly lost right now. Abe was the longest serving Prime Minister Japan has ever had. What kind of rage would have prompted this attack?
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus:
LA Times with AP story:
Very sad, and shocking for Japan.
Had not realized that former PM Abe’s grandfather was also a Prime Minister.
ETA: from the LA Times/AP story:
NutmegAgain
So shocked when I read that headline. And, my first thought was something like, “Oh God, the American disease is spreading”. It just feels like there is too much random violence not even including wars and famines.
Bill Arnold
He kinda mixed with the Japanese right wing, if that’s the correct term for those still pining for an Imperial Japan. Here’s an infamous photo of him in an airplane numbered 731:
Abe training jet photo sparks outrage in South Korean media
The military suggested that it was a coincidence and not a reference to Unit 731.
This seems unlikely.
Direct image address since scmp wants to load a ghastly sprawl of javascript:
https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1098,format=auto/sites/default/files/styles/1200×800/public/2013/05/16/abe_unit_731_1.jpg
Sebastian
This timeline is crazy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sebastian: It’s the only one we’ve got.
CaseyL
“No vital signs” is one of the things I didn’t want to repeat, hoping that was unconfirmed.
It’s just crazy: Abe is no longer in office, no longer setting policy (so far as I know; my knowledge of Japan’s political scene is minimal): seems like an odd target.
Jackie
The Japanese definition of heart failure doesn’t sound good. Coupled with two shots fired at essentially point blank range… He was shot from behind, and I read from WaPo? that he was clutching his blood covered chest. Not good. Not good at all.
Major Major Major Major
So crazy. What a shame.
@Bill Arnold: Abe was fine, even Noah Smith thinks he was the best Japanese leader in the last fifty years. Yes he flirted with the far right but that basically only amounted to a strengthened Japanese military, which is probably(?) a good thing. He dramatically increased immigration which they sorely needed and is not the action of an imperialist.
@CaseyL: He is/was still very influential with the governing party.
Another Scott
I’ve been to Nara twice, the last time in the late spring of 2019. It’s famous for its various shrines and temples and for the tame deer in the park. It’s a beautiful place to visit, but I’m sure that it has a lot of history that nationalists can point to to rile up supporters. :-(
Guns make it far too easy to kill, and to quickly change the course of national politics.
I hope that Japan, and the rest of us, learns the correct lessons.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
It says it was a campaign event. Was he still in politics and a candidate for future prime minister again? Or is he a truly retired politician who was campaigning for someone else?
That would certainly go to the motive possibly.
debbie
@Another Scott:
No doubt Japan will learn the correct lessons.
JoyceH
News is reporting the gun was homemade. And if I’m hearing them right, they say that gun ownership in Japan is strictly controlled by the Firearm and Sword Act. Sword?
Fair Economist
Lots of rumors that he’s dead on Twitter, but I can’t find anything from credible sources.
Tragic that this kind of evil is affecting Japan. His security was lax, but that’s because it *could* be, which was a great thing and a good reflection on Japan’s gun and crime policies.
Fair Economist
@Kent: He was campaigning for a Diet (Parliament) member. It would be very strange for an ex-Prime Minister to resume high office, but he has been active supporting his faction.
Major Major Major Major
@JoyceH: Seems like the sort of place that would have a sword control act.
scav
@Major Major Major Major: There have been several sword murders in the UK as well. They’re still nicely dangerous weapons albeit slower and necessarily closer range.
Elizabelle
@Fair Economist: Shades of Olaf Palme, many years ago (1986). Swedish PM. Walking home from a movie with his wife. Shot; killer remains at large.
Three shot dead at a Copenhagen mall earlier this week was international news. They are not us, not the US.
trollhattan
He as PM was known to visit WWII shrines, which was very unpopular with Korea, China and presumably some portion of the Japanese people. No idea if there’s a connection.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25517205
JCJ
Abe’s eye roll while dealing with TFG was a thing of beauty.
Fair Economist
@JoyceH: Pre-opening to the West Japan had very strict laws about owning weapons like swords, effectively limiting them to the samurai caste. I don’t know what happened with such laws in Meiji times, but Japan has a tradition of strict sword regulation.
JoyceH
How soon till our gun humpers start pointing to this as ‘proof gun control doesn’t work’?
Fair Economist
Japan Times cites PM Kishida as saying Abe is in “serious condition”. I’ve seen other claims Kishida said “grave”.
https://twitter.com/japantimes/status/1545284315625312256
Sebastian
@Omnes Omnibus:
I checked out for a while. I probably missed your Finest Hour, Omnes. Ceasar, HIMARS! Krabs!
The artillery war in UA must have you on the edge of your seat these days.
Fair Economist
@JoyceH: I’m sure they already have. Doesn’t matter, everybody really knows gun control works. Including the gun humpers, because otherwise they wouldn’t care.
JoyceH
@Fair Economist: Well, I just heard on the news that Abe is in critical condition and was shot in the chest and the neck. Dawned on me – if he’d been shot with an AR-15, he would have probably been beheaded.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
Major Strasser has been shot!
Major Major Major Major
@Fair Economist: I believe swords were banned during the Restoration as part of the process of abolishing the samurai.
eta: like, walking around with swords
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
Bloomberg Tokyo reporter is on Aussie TV saying he’s dead citing police sources.
says shock is double because “gun violence is extraordinary rare” in Japan
Says elections are usually “snorefests” -that politics aren’t polarized
Geoduck
The picture I’ve seen of the supposed gun shows two pipes wrapped in duct tape, so yeah, it was something cobbled together at home. The smoke from the shot evidently indicates the gunpowder used was homemade as well.
I imagine getting your hands on a professionally-made shotgun is pretty much impossible in Japan.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Historically in Japan assassination is a form of political protest. The whole 47 Ronan thing. That’s probably why modern Japanese politics is deliberately boring because before WW2 a lot of Japanese Prime Minsters were murdered.
Also, if you want see some really crazed weapon fetishists Weaboos and their Katanas.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I just checked the front pages of BBC, CNN, AP, Al Jazeera, and Bloomberg, and as of 10:50am Athens time (0750 UTC) all say “critical” or “grave” condition. I’m taking this to mean that Abe’s under the care of some of the best medical professionals in the world, who are either still trying to save him or are not yet ready to make any definitive statements for various understandable reasons.
Brachiator
Very sad news from Japan.
A BBC News background piece included this…
I did not know who is the US ambassador to Japan.
VeniceRiley
@Brachiator: Been a while since Rahm popped up in the news.
Political murders never work out the way the perps envision. RIP.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
0900 UTC: BBC and AP report Abe has died, citing an NHK report.
SiubhanDuinne
NPR reports (from NHK) that Abe has, in fact, died. Everything I had seen or heard until just a minute ago had him in “grave” or “critical” condition.
Very sad.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
It’s being reported that he has died. It was a handmade gun. According to what I’ve read, when the doctors did surgery, they did not find any bullets. We’ll have to wait for more details.
The suspect was formerly in the Maritime Self-Defense Forces for 3 years. Not much has been said yet about the motive. On Sunday, there elections are supposed to be held. Whether they will continue or be postponed has yet to be decided. It’s been a huge shock here.
Mai Naem mobile
ABC and BBC reporting Abe has died. This world has just gone off the rails crazy. I just want to hide myself in a bunker. When I first heard he’d gotten shot I just assumed he was in somewhere outside of Japan since gun crimes are virtually unheard of in Japan. I’m wondering if we’re exporting our epidemic.
brantl
@JoyceH: Nanoseconds, probably.
raven
@Mai Naem mobile: Not everything is about us.
Suzanne
@Mai Naem mobile:
I relate.
Cacti
Shocked at the news, and doubly shocked that it happened within Japan, where gun crimes are practically unheard of.
Baud
Random person on Reddit said it was a self-made gun that operated on batteries.
Baud
I hope the Secret Service is beefing up Biden’s security in case there are any copycats out there.
Cacti
@Baud:
Just saw a photo of the weapon. Looked very crude. PVC pipe and electrical tape.
Baud
@Cacti:
This was the reddit photo.
https://i.imgur.com/FctjAts.jpg
raven
Pipe guns were first seen in the Philippines during World War II.[16] The “paliuntod” is a type of improvised shotgun commonly used by guerrillas and the joint American and Filipino soldiers who remained behind after Douglas MacArthur’s withdrawal. Made of two pieces of pipe that fit snugly together, the “paliuntod” were simple, single shot guns. These pipe guns are still in use by both criminals and rebels in the Philippines
Baud
@raven:
This gun had two shots. The second shot was the kill shot.
rikyrah
raven
@Baud: It’s a double barrel but the same idea.
lee
@Baud:
There is a video from a distance of the shooting. The difference in cultures is amazing.
The first shot rang out and hardly anyone moved (not even Abe). I’m guessing because no one recognized the sound of gun fire. The second shot hit Abe.
PaulWartenberg
I am getting serious Propaganda of the Deed vibes from this assassination.
Tony G
@Geoduck: Yes, my understanding from my Japanese wife is that it’s close to impossible for a civilian to get his hands on a real gun — so the guy used this home-made jerry-rigged weapon. Gun control “worked” in this case in the sense that the guy got off only two shots — rather than 30 shots — before being apprehended. The fact that he was able to get as close to Abe as he did was probably because the security people don’t expect anyone to have a gun.
YY_Sima Qian
The reactionary right wing in Japan, of whom Abe is a card carrying member, are not some kind of harmless cranks w/ anachronistic beliefs. These are the people who truly believe that Imperial Japan launched its wars of aggression across Asia & the Pacific (from the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 to WW II) to save Asia from Western colonialism, that there was nothin untoward happening w/ Unit 731, there was no Rape of Nanking, that the comfort women were all willing sex workers. They glorify Imperial Japan, absolutely refuse to apologize for all of the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan, & will quickly undermine the effect of anyone in position of power making such remarks of contrition. Abe himself saw the neutering of NHK (much as the Tories has neutered the BBC & the GOP the NPR) & significant reduction in freedom of press during his time in power.
The US foreign policy establishment tend to favor or at least tolerate the right wing because they are seen as reliable US allies, particularly in the Great Power Competition w/ China. However, the reactionary Japanese right wing is only “loyal” to the alliance w/ the US because they fear an ascendant China much more than domination by the US. Back in the 80s, at a time that Japan was seen as ascendant, it was the same Japanese right wing that was proclaiming. “Japan Can Say No (to the US)”.
So, I have to chuckle when I see hagiographies from US leaders & press about this national leader or that.
Interestingly, Abe also worked hard to normalize relations w/ China during his most recent time in power, as a hedge against potential unreliability in the US, & refrained from paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine, where millions of cannon fodder that lost their lives in Imperial Japan’s wars of aggression are honored, including a bunch of convicted Class A war criminals from WW II. However, no one in East Asia was fooled that this was anything but a tactical hedging move.
YY_Sima Qian
However, Abe’s assassination will probably martyr him, & galvanize support for the Japanese right wing’s policies.