On 8th July, Friday, when gun shots went in the streets, it wasn’t the streets of Missouri, one of the United States’ most violent streets. It was the streets of Nara, in Japan, the pacifist nation with very strict gun controls. And the victim – the former president of Japan, Shinzo Abe.

Who was Shinzo Abe?

Shinzo Abe  was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of modern, pacifist Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)  from 2006 to 2007 and a second term,  from 2012 to 2020.

Abe was the longest-serving prime minister in the history of pacifist Japan.  From 2005 to 2006, Abe also served as the Chief Cabinet Secretary under Junichiro Koizumi.  In 2012, he was briefly leader of the opposition.

Abe was born into a prominent political family. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993. He was then appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary by Koizumi. Later in September 2006, Abe replaced Koizumi as Prime minister and LDP president.

He was Japan’s youngest post-war prime minister, and the first to have been born after world war II.  

Who shot and killed Shinzo Abe?

Shinzo Abe was shot by Tetsuya Yamagami. The ex-prime minister was gunned down on 8th July, Friday, 2022 on the streets on Nara while he was campaigning for an iminent upper house parliamentary election.

According the Police, Shinzo Abe was shot by a 41 year old man named Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of the Japanese Self Defense force Navy.

The gun used by Tetsuya was homemade. Tetsuya has admitted shooting Shinzo Abe with a homemade gun. Per Police resport, the suspect claimed he had a grudge with a “specific organisation” which Abe was either a member or supported.

Tetsuya was said to have appeared from nowhere according to eye witnesses. When Tetsuya Yamagani shot Abe for the first time, many did not know what was going on. Some had mistaken the shot for fireworks. It was only after the immediate second shot that members of the Security Police wrestled and pinned Yamagami to the ground.

How did it pan out?

Shinzo Abe was on the streets of Nara campaigning for Kei Sato, a candidate in Sunday’s  (10th July) upper house election.

He was dressed in dark jacket despite the summer heat. In his campaign, the assassinated Prime Minister called on the gathered crowd to re-elect Kei Sato. Some of the public took pictures of the prime minister using their mobile phones. 

The former prime minister praised Sato’s pandemic response and urged the aged crowd to consider voting for him again.

“During the pandemic, he heard everyone’s concerns,” Abe told the crowd. He continued that, “He was the type of person who didn’t look for reasons not to do something.”

Was the ex-prime minister under protection?

In the United States, the President and former Presidents are heavily guarded by the so-called Secret Service. This is very necessary given the fact that almost everyone owns a gun in the US and besides, the US has made many enemies in the world due to its combatant foreign policy and so-called war on terror.

In Japan, there are strict gun laws and citizens hardly own guns. Japan is a pacifist nation since world war II, something Abe himself unsuccessfully tried to change.

In Japan, the elite Security Police guard the ex-prime minister – Tokyo’s version of the Secret Service in the US.

The security personnel appeared to be standing at Abe’s right and behind him wearing suits while he engaged the crowd.

Searching suspect’s house.

Police mounted a search in Tetsuya’s home and found many other handmade weapons, similar to the one employed in the attack. All these weapons have been confiscated by the police. 

Police also found explosives were also found at the home and police said they had advised residents to evacuate the area.

Japan and crime rate

The former Japanese leader’s death came as a shock to the entire world, especially for a country like Japan where guns are not only tightly controlled but political violence is literally non-existent.

Japan has one of the  lowest  gun crimes in the world.  For instance, in 2014, there  were just six  gun -related  crimes  in Japan as compared to 33,599  deaths in the United States.

• attend an all-day class
• take a written exam
• pass a shooting-range test with a minimum mark of 95%
• pass mental health test
• pass drugs tests
• pass police background checks
• pass anti-terror or link to any terror cell check

Police will check your family background for any records of crime including even your workplace. Many therefore give up on owning a gun due to the bureaucracy. 

To crown it all,  handguns are outrightly banned in Japan. Only shotguns and air rifles are permitted.

And one more thing! The Police must be notified where the gun and ammunition are stored. Moreover, they must be stored separately and locked away with key. 

Police will also inspect guns once a year. And after three years your license runs out, at which point you have to attend the course and pass the tests again.

World’s reaction to Abe’s death.

Japan’s current Prime Minister,  Fumio Kishida, a protege of the assassinated ex-PM, reacted to Abe’s assassination in utter surprise.

“I am simply speechless over the news of Abe’s death. This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections – the very foundation of our democracy….and is absolutely unforgivable,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.

“I deeply regret his sudden death,” Chinese state media quoted Xi as saying on behalf of the Chinese government and people in a message to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

In China, Abe is seen as hawkish. He’s seen as someone who downplayed Japanese past atrocities against China and relentlessly tried to re-awake the Japanese war machine by militarizing pacifist Japan after the second world war. 

Abe is largely believed to be the brain child of the Quad, a military alliance of Japan, Australia, India and the US to contain a rising China.

In the United States, President Biden said he was “stunned, outraged and deeply saddened by the news that my friend Abe Shinzo, former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and killed while campaigning.

“We stand closely by Japan’s side in these difficult hours,” Germany’s Scholz said in a tweet.

“Japan has lost a great prime minister,” France’s Macron said.

Why was Shinzo Abe shot?

Tetsuya Yamagami told the police that he shot the ex-Prime Minister he begrudged a particular group which he believed the assassinated Prime Minister  was connected to, police said, adding that they were investigating why the former PM was targeted out of other people related to the group.