Japan is reeling from theassassinationof its longest - serve former select minister , Shinzo Abe , July 8 . Abe was campaigning for the rule Liberal Democratic Party for the Upper House election due Sunday , in the metropolis of Nara in western Japan , when he was shot from behind with an patently homemade sawn - off shotgun .
The alleged assailant , reportedly a42 - year - older local man , was hold back at the scene . There is no known motif at this clip , but there arereportsthe defendant is a former member of the Japanese Maritime Self - Defense Forces .
Abe was see lying phlebotomize on the ground , before being taken by helicopter to a nearby infirmary where he waslater pronounced dead .
Political violence — andgun violencein general — is extremely rare in postwar Japan , so this incident has profoundly take aback the Nipponese world . Gun ownership is tightly regulated , and mostly restricted to registered hunters .
There have been episodic shot byorganized crimegroups , typically targeting each other , but Japan has systematically hadlow rates of vehement crime .
Far - right groups have been responsible for a few attacks on politicians in the postwar period : In 1990 , then - mayor of Nagasaki , Hitoshi Motoshima , wasshot and injure ; and in 1960 Inejirō Asanuma , leader of the opposition Japan Socialist Party , wasstabbed and murdered .
In the prewar era , democratic politico incur themselves subject to frequent attacks and determent by militarists . Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi wasmurderedby Imperial Navy officers in an attempted takeover May 15 , 1932 .
Abe’s Political Legacy
Abe , 67 , is the grandson of former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi , and was a scion of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party , which has been in government for most of the postwar earned run average . His first stretch as prime diplomatic minister last or so a class , from 2006 to 2007 , beforehe resigneddue to ulcerative inflammatory bowel disease following his party ’s pathetic performance in the 2007 Upper House elections .
He made a remarkable political comeback in 2012 , reclaim the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party and winning the general election that December . Abe won national elections in 2014 and 2017 , entrench his power over the weak and divided enemy parties .
He introduced his signature economic policy , " Abenomics , " establish on massive shortage spending , quantitative easing and attack at morphological reform . However , twice put forward the consumption taxation sabotage these attempts to wind the Nipponese thriftiness out of its decadeslong stagnation .
A member of the ultranationalist pressure group group Nippon Kaigi , Abe carry out a far - reaching shift of Nipponese extraneous and defense policy , reinterpret the pacifist clause 9 of the Constitution , to allow greater overseas deployment of the Self - Defense Forces .
His government increased demurrer outgo annually , and in 2015 the Diet ( the Nipponese parliament ) passedcontroversial security measure billsthat take into account the Self - Defense Forces to take part in collective defense operations with ally countries , particularly the United States but potentially also Australia , India and the United Kingdom .
Abe originally raise the concept of the Quad security partnership between Japan , the U.S. , Australia and India , and in 2016 formalized the phrase " free and unresolved Indo - Pacific " as Japan ’s principal foreign policy destination to preserve the U.S.-led rules - based free order in external relation .
His longevity in bureau saw him become one of the most experient world leadership , and he used his foreign policy experience to steadily make out the U.S. alliance , handling the fickle President Donald Trump through " golf statecraft . "
Abe was able to maintain fair stable relations with neighboring China , Japan ’s declamatory trading married person , despite the long - melt territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands ( claimed as the Daioyus by China ) . sexual intercourse with South Korea remained poor , however , due to disputes over historical issue stemming from Japan ’s colonial rule of Korea .
A extremity of the largest conservative faction in the Liberal Democratic Party , Abe ’s dominance over the party and Japanese political sympathies began to erode when the ruling coalition lose its two - thirds majority in the 2019 Upper House election . A long - go serial ofnepotism scandalsalso dented his public standing ; investigations by public prosecutors lead to charge against some of Abe ’s companion and political staff , although Abe himself was never indict .
While Japan coped fairly well with the COVID-19 pandemic , mostly due to cooperation with recommend wellness measures by the public , Abe ’s governing add up under increasing unfavorable judgment for a serial of inept pandemic response as the economy went into a needlelike receding . Abe ’s ill - wellness devolve , and he resigned in August 2020 , replaced the following calendar month by his former chief cabinet secretary , Yoshihide Suga .
Abe remained in the Diet , and in 2021 became the leader of the Hosoda faction , after back his former foreign minister and current premier minister Fumio Kishida in the race to become the party ’s leader .
Situation Still Developing
In response to this calamity , the Liberal Democratic Party has requested that its candidates cease political campaign , and oppositeness political party politicians have also announced they will debar hunting expedition activity .
Kishida has return to the quality diplomatic minister ’s function to monitor the billet , but at the meter of writing , there has been no declaration about voting arrangements for the Upper House election , due to proceed Sunday , July 10 .
In preelection polling , the Liberal Democratic Party was expected to win a well-to-do majority , in partnership with its junior partner , the Komeito party .
The 2022 Upper House election will now remain under the phantasm of one of the most disturbing events in Japan ’s advanced political history .
Craig Mark is a prof and module of outside studies at Kyoritsu Women ’s University in Tokyo .
This article is republish fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons licence . you may feel the original clause here .
