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A suspect remains in police custody following the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, after police found explosives during a raid of his apartment.
Tributes have grown for Japan’s longest-serving prime minister both across the nation and around the globe with world leaders expressing their shock and sadness.
Nara-nishi police said in a news conference on Friday that Yamagami Tetsuya, a 41-year-old unemployed man, was responding calmly to questions and had admitted to attacking Abe, telling investigators he had plotted to kill Abe because he believed rumours about the former leader’s connection to a certain organisation that police did not identify.
Eryk Bagshaw, reporter for Sydney Morning Herald, told Today Yamagami’s motive is related to a religious cause.
“It appears he has told police that there is a religious connection to his assassination of Abe,” he said.
The suspect had been arrested at the scene and later charged with attempted murder, according to local broadcaster NHK.
Yamagami is now being investigated on suspicion of murder police say, with a taskforce of 90 investigators dedicated to the case. Police are also looking into whether he acted alone.
It’s been reported the suspect’s neighbourhood had been cleared after a number of explosives were found along with handmade weapons during the raid.
Police said they searched the one-bedroom apartment at 5.17pm (6.17pm AEST) confiscating several homemade pistol-like items during the raid, along with his personal computer.
Dressed in protective gear, including helmets and body armour and carrying protective shields, several police officers made their way into the building NHK identified as the home of the suspect.
Yamagami allegedly shot at Abe from behind using a 40 centimetre-long homemade weapon. Police said the gun in the shooting was made using a mix of materials such as metal and wood.
However, they are unable to say whether the weapon was made using a 3D printer, the BBC reports.
It’s been reported the suspect, a former member of Japan’s navy, said he wanted to kill Abe because he had complaints about him unrelated to politics.
Abe died from excessive bleeding and was pronounced dead at 5.03pm (6.03pm AEST), doctors at the Nara Medical University hospital said during a press conference on Friday.
The doctors said the bullet that killed the former Japanese leader was “deep enough to reach his heart” and a team of 20 medical professionals were unable to stop the bleeding.
Abe went into cardiopulmonary arrest (a term used to describe the sudden loss of heart function and breathing) at the site of the shooting and was rushed to hospital in a state of cardiac arrest at 12.20pm (1.20pm AEST), doctors said.
During surgery, doctors discovered a bullet wound to the 67-year-old’s neck and a large wound on his heart.
Video aired by the public broadcaster captured the moments before the shooting, showing Abe speaking to a small crowd in front of Yamatosaidaiji railway station.
In subsequent videos, two shots can be heard and smoke can be seen in the air.
Photos of the scene show people gathered around the former leader as he lay in the street, with what appeared to be blood stains on his white shirt.
He was rushed to hospital via helicopter, where medics began frantic efforts to keep him alive. But Abe’s heart had stopped beating by the time he reached the hospital, doctors said.
The former leader had two bullet wounds, one on the front of his neck and a large wound on the heart, they said. But doctors could not determine the trajectory of the bullet.
During surgery, doctors struggled to stem the bleeding and Abe died from a loss of blood. “We took resuscitative measures, but (Abe) unfortunately died,” Hidenori Fukushima, a professor at Nara Medical University, told a press conference.
Akie Abe, the wife of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe, arrived late Friday at the hospital where her husband was pronounced dead.
Nation in mourning
People have been laying flowers at the scene of the shooting in Nara, as shockwaves of Abe’s death ripple across Japan.
A makeshift shrine emerged at Yamato-Saidaiji Station, where Abe was shot.
Many prayed for the former leader and his family as they paid their respects.
In Tokyo, people stopped to buy extra editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting.
Meanwhile, social media companies including Twitter and Facebook scrambled to police videos on their platforms that break rules on harmful content.
Multiple videos of the attack by a gunman who fired a homemade, double-barreled weapon twice at Abe circulated on social media. Some only show the moments before and after the attack while others showed both shots.
Japan’s low gun crime
Abe’s assassination has shocked Japan, which has one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world due to its extremely strict gun control laws.
The nation reported only one death due to firearms in 2021, according to the National Police Agency. A total of 10 firearm-related incidents were reported in the country in 2021 — up from seven in 2020.
Eight of the 10 reported incidents were gang-related, the agency’s report states.
In the past five years, the highest number of firearm-related deaths per year reported in Japan was four.
The data indicates just how rare gun violence is in Japan, which can be credited to its strict gun ownership laws and thorough background check processes.
In 2018, Japan reported nine deaths from firearms, compared with 39,740 that year in the United States.
Under Japan’s firearms laws, the only guns permitted for sale are shotguns and air rifles – handguns are outlawed. But getting them is a long and complicated process.
The last high-profile shooting occurred in 2019, when a former gang member was shot at a karaoke venue in Tokyo.
Nancy Snow, Japan director of the International Security Industrial Council, told CNN that Friday’s shooting will change the country “forever.”
“It’s not only rare, but it’s really culturally unfathomable,” Snow said.
“The Japanese people can’t imagine having a gun culture like we have in the United States. This is a speechless moment. I really feel at a loss for words. I pray for the best for the former prime minister.”
Source: 9News
