Japan on Saturday mourned the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, whose body was being moved to Tokyo from the western town where he was gunned down at close range on the campaign trail.
The murder of Japan’s best-known politician rattled the country and sent shockwaves around the world, particularly given the nation’s low levels of violent crime and strict gun laws.
The man accused of shooting Abe is in custody, with police saying he had confessed to assassinating the former premier, motivated by a belief Abe was linked to an unspecified group.
Police were investigating the unemployed 41-year-old’s background, including claims he had served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force, Japan’s navy, and said he appeared to have used a handmade gun.
Abe was delivering a stump speech ahead of Sunday’s upper house elections when he was shot, and campaigning was resuming Saturday, with politicians saying they were determined to show the murder could not stop democracy.
Shortly before 6am, a funeral hearse carrying Abe’s wife Akie and believed to be transporting the former leader’s body left the hospital in Kashihara, western Japan where he was treated.
Doctors at the Nara Medical University hospital said Friday that Abe showed no vital signs when he arrived and died of enormous blood loss, despite massive transfusions.
They described multiple wounds to the prime minister’s neck, with the internal damage reaching as deep as his heart.
Abe’s murder shook Japan, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida describing the killing as a “barbaric act” that was “unforgivable”.
He was visibly emotional after the former leader’s death was confirmed, pronouncing himself “lost for words”.
By Friday night, a steady stream of mourners came to lay flowers and pray for their former leader, a man who was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and easily the country’s most recognisable politician.
Source: AFP
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