the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died Friday after being shot while delivering a stump speech in the western city of Nara two days ahead of a national election.

Japan's longest-serving leader was shot by a 41-year-old man from behind at around 11:30 a.m. when he was speaking in front of Kintetsu Railway's Yamato-Saidaiji Station, police said, adding he collapsed on the ground after two shots were heard. He was rushed to a hospital with blood seen on his shirt.

Read more: https://japantoday.com/category/crime/Former-Prime-Minister-Abe-dies-after-being-shot-while-campaigning-in-Nara

I heard about that. Tragic, but I never really followed Japanese politics much so I don't know anything about Abe himself.

Has there been any reporting on the shooter? Was this the typical mentally ill guy (i.e. John Hinkley) or politically motivated?

Oh well he was only former PM

Why don't they start having a mandatory ambulance at every speech they're doing

In Japan, groups are easily identified but individuals remain "under the radar" and therefore the homogeneity modus opernadi sadly contributed to the demise of the former President
The dark skin South Asian would have been searched or challenged but it appears that despite the minimal protection detail, another Japanese making an unespected movement would NEVER be considered a threat based on current protocol.

Additionally, Japan has few such encounters and I saw that 10 people were shot last year in Japan.

Shocking indeed!

Concerning the shooter - he was acting alone. He said he had no disagreement with Abe's political policies but targeted Abe for his associations with a religious organisation that had been connected with his (the shooter's) mother going into debt and the breakup of his family. He had been in the Self Defense Force (navy) for a few years, and his gun was homemade. He acted very deliberately *as the available footage shows) and said he had meant to kill Abe.

As for Abe's political stance - he was a hard line conservative. Beyond (or perhaps part and parcel of that) he had connections with a number of dubious groups, including religious ones. He certainly had his detractors as well as his supporters. In particular, he aroused popular anger in his attempts to change the constitution by altering the clause regarding self-defense and which precluded pre-emptive attacks. While there are strategic reasons for wishing to do so, it came across as if he was just trying to fulfil his grandfather's (also a former PM) ambitions, using his party's strong position to go against public opinion.

Worryingly, he (and his cabinet) seemed to have little regard for freedom of the press, pressuring several TV stations to fire presenters who had been critical of the government stance on the constitutional reforms. Abe was also involved in a couple of major scandals in his last year in office (a dodgy property deal connected to building a Shinto elementary school, and using public funds for a cherry blossom viewing party for his supporters) which did much to sour public opinion.

Questions are currently being asked about his protection detail. Although they reacted quickly (one of them can be seen on some footage dashing to shield Abe after the first shot) their placement seems to have been poor, and critically, nobody was looking towards the rear while Abe was speaking.

TV commentary here has made much of the fact that this kind of violence has no place in a democracy (of course!!!), but more than a few people must be looking back at the spate of political assassinations in the thirties.

Graculus
https://ichijoji.blogspot.com

Thanks, Graculus, very interesting background information.

Graculus thanks for the information.

FWIW, PSD (Protective Security Details) don't work the way most people think.

Only a handful of documented cases exists where the PSD saved the primary AFTER an active shooter attacked. The PSD exists to prevent the incident.

Human reaction times being what there are, if the assailant gets the drop on the target, they are probably going to die.

Thought he is lauded publicly, his family's government service has been a long line of negative representation going back to Pu YI (the last Manchu "Pretender", where Japan choose him to lead from Manchuria after the fall of the Qing dynasty.
There has been some attempts to atone for past actions on the part of the Japanese government, nonethless . To top it all off, Abe took the side of Taiwan in the current "Who represents the Real China" debacle!