ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday he was “deeply shocked” by the news that Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election.
Public broadcaster NHK said a man armed with an apparently homemade gun opened fired at him from behind.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the shooting in the western city of Nara during the campaign for Sunday’s upper house election as an unacceptable attack on the foundation of Japan’s democracy. He said Abe, 67, was in grave condition.
“Deeply shocked to hear the sad news of an attack on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” Sharif said on Twitter. “We send our prayers & best wishes for his early recovery & good health. Our thoughts are with him, his family, and the people of Japan.”
Earlier, a hospital official told Reuters Abe appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest when airlifted to hospital, after having initially been conscious and responsive.
Police told media a 41-year-old man suspected of carrying out the shooting had been arrested. NHK quoted the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him.
NHK showed video of Abe making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out, after which the view was briefly obscured and then security officials were seen tackling a man in a grey T-shirt and beige trousers. A puff of smoke behind Abe could be seen in another video shown in NHK.
Kyodo published a photograph showing Abe lying face-up on the street by a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. People were crowded around him, one administering heart massage.
TBS Television reported that Abe had been shot on the left side of his chest and apparently also in the neck.
Political violence is rare in Japan, a country with strict gun regulations.
In 2007 the major of Nagasaki was shot and killed by a yakuza gangster. The head of the Japan Socialist Party was assassinated during a speech in 1960 by a right-wing youth with a samurai short sword.
“I thought it was firecrackers at first,” one bystander told NHK.
Airo Hino, political science professor at Waseda University, told media such a shooting was unprecedented in Japan.
“There has never been anything like this,” he said.
Police said the suspected shooter was a resident of Nara. Media said he had served in Japan’s military.
Abe served two terms as prime minister, stepping down in 2020 citing ill health. But he has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), controlling one of its major factions.
Abe is best known for his “Abenomics” policy of aggressive monetary easing and fiscal spending. He also bolstered defense spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.
The yen rose and Japan’s Nikkei index fell on news of the shooting, partially driven by a knee-jerk flight to safety.
