TOKYO (AP) — The body of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was returned to Tokyo on Saturday after he was fatally shot during a campaign speech in western Japan a day earlier.
Abe was attacked in the city of Nara and airlifted to a local hospital but died of blood loss despite emergency treatment including massive blood transfusions. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan's navy, at the scene on suspicion of murder. Police confiscated the homemade gun he used, and several others were later found at his apartment.
Abe’s assassination ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election shocked the nation as a threat to democracy and raised questions over whether security for Abe was adequate.
It also stunned global leaders who sent condolences, while many Japanese visited the site of the attack to lay flowers and pray for the former leader who remained influential even after he stepped down in 2020.
The Associated Press
