Former Japan PM Shinzo Abe Dies After Being Shot During Campaign Speech

Former Japan Prime Minister (PM), Shinzo Abe, has died in a hospital on Friday after being shot at a political campaign event in the western city of Nara, about 500km from the capital Tokyo. The assassination of Japan’s Former Prime Minister comes despite the country’s strict gun laws and while campaigning being underway ahead of the country’s upper house elections on Sunday.

According to the details, Shinzo Abe, was making poll campaign speech when he was shot twice from behind with one bullet hitting his neck and the other one penetrated his heart. The 67-year-old was taken to the Nara Medical University Hospital, where doctors tried to resuscitate him for several hours before pronouncing him dead.

The shooter, who is reportedly a 41-year-old member of the country’s navy, was identified as Tetsuya Yamagami. According to the details, he did not try to flee after shooting and told the police that he wanted to kill Shinzo Abe because he was ‘dissatisfied’ with him.

Officials later discovered several explosives at the shooters’ residence.

Shinzo Abe was the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister, who held office in 2006 for one year and again from 2012 to 2020, when he was forced to step down due to deliberating bowel condition ulcerative colitis. He was a hawkish conservative and one of the most popular politicians in the country, who pushed for revision of Japan’s pacifist constitution to recognize the country’s military.

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