AN UNFORTUNATE MISHAP

Former PM Of Japan Shinzo Abe Was Assassinated

Assassination of Former PM of Japan Shinzo Abe 

The World got flabbergasted after the news of assassination of former PM of Japan Shinzo Abe made a ripple effect of mourning across all over places. He was shot dead at the age of 67 from behind with an apparently homemade sawn-off shotgun while giving a campaign speech on Friday morning in Nara, Japan, by a 41-year-old man identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, a resident of Nara who also served in Japanese military. As the news broke, world leaders poured their condolences to the departed soul. 

Shooted to Death

Multiple shots were fired in a broad daylight by attacker, who has now been arrested.  A bullet hit Abe in left chest, one shot appeared to have hit his neck. He was seen lying bleeding on the ground, before being taken to a nearby hospital by helicopter. Emergency services reported to have been in a state of cardiac arrest. prima facie evidence garnered from the video footage indicates that the former PM's security was totally surprised at the shooting & perhaps shocked at the turn of events. The assassin shot the Japanese leader not for his nationalism nor for any political motives but that Shinzo Abe supported an unspecified organization. 

Non violent Japan

Gun violence, & political violence in general, is extremely rare in post-war Japan, so this incident has deeply shocked the Japanese public. Gun ownership is tightly regulated, & mostly restricted to registered hunters. Gun shootings in Japan are rare & mass shootings are unheard of due to their strict laws on weapons. Handguns are banned outright & only air rifles & shotguns are allowed. Occasional shootings have been there by organised crime groups, typically targeting each other, there has consistently been low rates of violent crime in Japan.

Groups Responsible for Attacks on Polticians

Far-right groups have been responsible for a few attacks on politicians in the post-war period: in 1990, the then mayor of Nagasaki, Hitoshi Motoshima, was shot & wounded; & in 1960 leader of the opposition Japan Socialist Party Inejirō Asanuma was stabbed & murdered. In the pre-war era, democratic politicians found themselves subject to frequent intimidation & attacks by militarists. PM Inukai Tsuyoshi was murdered by Imperial Navy officers in an attempted coup on May 15 1932. 

Shinzo Abe in Japan’s Politics

The 21st century politics in Japan belonged to a single man: Shinzo Abe. Before his senseless & brutal assassination, he was still the most recognizable face of politics in Japan, Instead of his resignation as PM in August 2020, due to ill health. His killing has left a nation confounded & disoriented. Shinzo’s lineage was so robust as to endow his rise to the political summit almost with a sense of inevitability. His maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was PM of Japan from 1957 to 1960, while his paternal grandfather, Kan Abe, was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan. His father, Shintaro Abe, had been a foreign minister.

Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving PM in Japan’s history led an ambitious domestic reform agenda & redefined the country’s status in geopolitical affairs. Following his assassination, he will likely to be most remembered for “Abenomics,” a controversial economic stimulus strategy to help revive the Japanese economy. Abe’s shooting in one of the safest countries in the world, has stunned even his most trenchant critics into an outpouring of sympathy. The former PM was not universally loved, but he was iconic, dominant, of Japan. It is possible that his death may help achieve some of the goals he couldn’t succeed to reach while in office. As the political fallout of the assassination unfolds, Japan will be somewhere to watch for the coming months.

After Effect of  Assassination of Abe

The assassination of Abe, may be the tallest post-war leaders of Japan, is a wake-up call for those whose job is to protect VVIPs in the democratic world where the politician-people interaction is integral. The assassination of Abe should be a lesson to those protecting global leaders like Indian PM Modi, US President Biden, French President Macron & many others, as lone wolf & guerrilla surprise attacks, have been & will continue to be a nightmare for the protectors. To ensure the target has a higher chance of surviving, zone perimeter protection using sensor-based metal detectors, surveillance, and anti-drone technology might be the solution. If such protection had been given to Abe, success chances of Yamagami’s assassin would have been very low.