Assassination of Shinzo Abe

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The native form of this person's name is Abe Shinzō.  This article uses Western name order when talking about people.

Shinzo Abe

Shinzo Abe (Japanese: 安倍晋三) was a former Prime Minister of Japan, who retired in 2020. He was also a serving member of the Japanese House of Representatives, and the longest-serving Prime Minister in Japan's history.

Assassination

Abe was shot twice while speaking at a political rally for a local Liberal Democratic Party candidate, Kei Sato, in the city of Nara, at 11:30 a.m. JST (UTC +9 hours), Friday, July 8, 2022.

The assassin, named by police as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, was arrested at the scene. Yamagami apparently made no attempts to run from the police.

He admitted to shooting Abe with a homemade gun, because he was "dissatisfied" with him as a representative, and said he had fully intended to kill him.

Abe was airlifted to Nara University Medical Center, where after more than 6 hours of treatment, doctors pronounced him dead from his injuries at 5:03p.m JST.

Abe's assassination is only the 6th murder of a politician in the entire history of modern Japan, a country where guns and other firearms are heavily regulated, and may not be sold to the public.