Japan ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assassinated while giving speech

[nuckin_futz]

Japan ex-leader Shinzo Abe assassinated while giving speech

In this image from a video, Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, is attended on the ground in Nara, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. Abe was shot and critically wounded during a campaign speech Friday. He was airlifted to a hospital but officials said he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. (Kyodo News via AP)

 

 

NARA, Japan (AP) — Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nation's most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said.

 

Abe, 67, was shot from behind minutes after he started his speech in Nara. He was airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment but was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead despite emergency treatment that included massive blood transfusions, hospital officials said.

 

Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene of an attack that shocked many in Japan, which is one of the world’s safest nations and has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country after the shooting, which he called “dastardly and barbaric."

 

Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart in addition to two neck wounds that damaged an artery, causing extensive bleeding. He was in a state of cardio and pulmonary arrest when he arrived at the hospital and never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.

 

Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020.

 

Public television NHK aired a dramatic video of Abe giving a speech outside a train station in the western city of Nara. He is standing, dressed in a navy blue suit, raising his fist, when two gunshots are heard. The video then shows Abe collapsed on the street, with security guards running toward him. He holds his chest, his shirt smeared with blood.

 

In the next moment, security guards leap on top of a man in gray shirt who lies face down on the pavement. A double-barreled device that appeared to be a handmade gun is seen on the ground.

 

Nara prefectural police confirmed the arrest of Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, on suspicion of attempted murder. NHK reported that the suspect served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force for three years in the 2000s.

 

Other videos from the scene showed campaign officials surrounding Abe. The former leader was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai. Elections for Japan's upper house, the less powerful chamber of its parliament, are Sunday.

 

“I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” Kishida said as he struggled to control his emotions. He said thegovernment planned to review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.

 

Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy. In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to grab extra editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting.

 

When he resigned as prime minister, Abe said he had a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he'd had since he was a teenager.

 

He told reporters at the time that it was “gut wrenching” to leave many of his goals unfinished. He spoke of his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution.

 

That last goal was a big reason he was such a divisive figure.

 

His ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.

 

Loyalists said that his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capability. But Abe made enemies by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition.

 

randfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.

 

Many foreign officials expressed shock over the shooting.

 

Abe said he was proud of working while leader for a stronger Japan-U.S. security alliance and shepherding the first visit by a serving U.S. president to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” when it was not.

 

Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health.

 

The end of Abe’s scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.

 

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

 

He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japan’s defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan’s international profile.

 

********************

 

Definitely a very strange headline out of a country like Japan. He hadn't been Prime Minister in nearly 2 years having resigned in Sept 2020 due to a resurgence of Ulcerative colitis

 

[Jaimito]

Home made gun. 

 

 

 

 

[bishopshodan]

Wow, i read he got shot and collapsed last night but didn't know he passed.

 

[JM_]

2 hours ago, Jaimito said:

Home made gun. 

 

 

 

 

this is pretty scary, how do you stop people from making something like this? 

[Alflives]

8 minutes ago, JM_ said:

this is pretty scary, how do you stop people from making something like this? 

Don’t think we can.  This is very sad.  

[Ghostsof1915]

25 minutes ago, JM_ said:

this is pretty scary, how do you stop people from making something like this? 

Looks almost like a homemade shotgun.

[Ghostsof1915]

26 minutes ago, JM_ said:

this is pretty scary, how do you stop people from making something like this? 

It's worse when you consider there's 3D printers out there.

[I.Am.Ironman]

The question for me is the motive. It seems odd that a Japanese prime minister would affect someone’s life enough to want them dead. A lot questions will come of this. I know nothing of Japanese politics. What was his stance on China and on the Ukraine-Russia war?

[JM_]

10 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

It's worse when you consider there's 3D printers out there.

for sure. I have one, and yeah it would be very easy to do something far more complex than what this guy made. 

 

I wonder if this is going to change how leaders do things in public? if you think about the number of times Trudeau has been in public, in crowds, etc. its pretty damn scary. 

 

[Ghostsof1915]

1 minute ago, JM_ said:

for sure. I have one, and yeah it would be very easy to do something far more complex than what this guy made. 

 

I wonder if this is going to change how leaders do things in public? if you think about the number of times Trudeau has been in public, in crowds, etc. its pretty damn scary. 

 

Fortunately in Canada, hockey sticks are still the #1 choice in defence.

[Gnarcore]

1 hour ago, JM_ said:

this is pretty scary, how do you stop people from making something like this? 

Dude with 3D printers and internet access you can make far more than this according to some news report I saw in the past year

[NewbieCanuckFan]

1 hour ago, JM_ said:

for sure. I have one, and yeah it would be very easy to do something far more complex than what this guy made. 

 

I wonder if this is going to change how leaders do things in public? if you think about the number of times Trudeau has been in public, in crowds, etc. its pretty damn scary. 

 

 

(movie is about THIRTY years old)

Edited July 8, 2022 by NewbieCanuckFan

[nuckin_futz]

Shinzo Abe: Japan ex-leader's alleged killer held grudge against group - police

Police investigating the assassination of Japan's ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe have said the suspect held a grudge against a "specific organisation".

 

The alleged gunman, named as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, believed Abe was part of the group and shot him for that reason, they said, without naming the group.

 

Abe died in hospital on Friday morning after being shot while speaking at a political campaign event.

 

Tetsuya Yamagami has admitted shooting him with a homemade gun, police said.

 

Abe was Japan's longest-serving prime minister and his death at the age of 67 has profoundly shocked a country where gun crime is very rare.

 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was "simply speechless" at the news of Abe's death, vowing that Japan's democracy would "never yield to violence".

 

Police are still investigating whether his killer acted alone and why Abe was targeted out of other people related to the unnamed organisation.

Gunman made no attempt to flee

Abe was giving a speech for a political candidate at a road junction in the southern city of Nara when the attacker struck from behind.

 

Witnesses described a man carrying a large gun move within a few metres of Abe and fire twice at the former PM, who fell to the ground as bystanders screamed in shock and disbelief.

 

Photos circulating in the aftermath of the shooting showed the suspect standing just behind Abe as he gave his speech.

 

Security officers dived on to the gunman who made no attempt to run after he fired on Abe.

 

The weapon that killed the politician was made using metal and wood, officers said, and appeared to be wrapped in duct tape.

 

Several other handmade guns and explosives were later found at the suspect's home.

 

Abe suffered two bullet wounds to his neck during the attack and also suffered damage to his heart.

 

He was said to be conscious and responsive in the minutes after the attack, but doctors said no vital signs were detected by the time the former prime minister was transferred for treatment.

 

Medics worked for hours to save him and Abe received more than 100 units of blood in transfusions, before he was pronounced dead at 5.03pm local time (0803 GMT)

 

More in the link https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62098100

Edited July 8, 2022 by nuckin_futz

[Nuxfanabroad]

Hard to believe what happened here yesterday.

 

Was just saying to the Missus(who's been watching TV on this), this Yamagami character reminds me of DeNiro's infamous, Travis Bickle, from Scorcese's Taxi Driver. There are some parallels.

 

With 30 yrs of a stagnating economy, millions of young people have come of age (or indeed, reached middle age)feeling quite marginalized. The social harmony of this beautiful place is being stripped away, slowly & surely.

[bishopshodan]

Whats the guesses on the 'organisation'?

 

Yakuza, free masons, globalists, reptiles, water buffalo? 

 

 

[-SN-]

59 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

Whats the guesses on the 'organisation'?

 

Yakuza, free masons, globalists, reptiles, water buffalo? 

 

 

More likely Nippon Kaigi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Kaigi). Essentially far-right fascists that Abe was a big part of. 

[bishopshodan]

3 minutes ago, -SN- said:

More likely Nippon Kaigi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Kaigi). Essentially far-right fascists that Abe was a big part of. 

Ahh, thank you

[-SN-]

I might be wrong there:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-tetsuya-yamagami-japan-prime-minister-shinzo-abe/

 

Mentions a religious group. That said, Nippon Kaigi and Abe have a ton of links to religious groups, which tend to be far-right and super culty. Japanese media is reporting "Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church)".

 

[Jaimito]

4 hours ago, bishopshodan said:

Whats the guesses on the 'organisation'?

 

Yakuza, free masons, globalists, reptiles, water buffalo? 

 

 

Not enough tattoos on his body, therefore not Yakuza. 

Joking aside, this is a big jolt in Japanese politics. Regardless which party you like or support, I fear this will empower more extremist views (either left or right, take your pick).  Not good. 

[Dazzle]

Abe has died, but I heard he's not a good man. He was totally cool with the Japanese Nazis and had celebrated their 'achievements'.