Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was wounded and taken to hospital after being attacked during a campaign speech, local media reports. The perpetrator was overpowered.
According to media reports, an attack has been carried out on the former right-wing conservative Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
A man shot Abe from behind during a campaign speech in the old imperial city of Nara in broad daylight, Japanese media reported on Friday, citing Abe’s ruling LDP party. The politician was unconscious, it said. He was bleeding from the neck. The police overpowered the perpetrator.
Abe ruled Japan from December 2012 to September 2020, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister. Under him, Japan had moved significantly to the right. Abe is among the staunch supporters of a revision of the post-war pacifist constitution. In Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan “forever renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation, and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.”
Elections to the House of Lords will take place in Japan on Sunday. The LDP is expected to win a landslide victory. This could gain momentum in the debate about changing the constitution. The island kingdom of Japan has some of the strictest gun laws in the world and is considered one of the safest countries in the world.
