Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan who stepped down in 2020 due to health concerns, was assassinated with a homemade firearm by a former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force officer while delivering a campaign speech in Nara, the capital city of Nara Prefecture at approximately 11:30 JST. The shooting took place in broad daylight, horrifying the crowd that had gathered to hear Abe speak before he was gunned down. Abe was pronounced dead at at 5:03 JST, more than five hours after the shooting. Video footage of the event shows Abe collapsing following two loud bangs that were believed to be gun shots.

Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, lies on the ground after being shot by an assassin. (Reuters/YouTube)

The suspect, who has been detained on charges of attempted murder, has been identified as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami. A police official said during a press conference that Yamagami held a grudge against a "specific organization” and that he thought Abe was linked to the group, though he said he did not personally begrude Abe for his political beliefs. Police said that Yamagami learned about Abe's whereabouts from a website that included the politician’s schedule for campaign speeches.

The authorities have confirmed that the firearm Yamagami used in the shooting was homemade. Moreover, they recovered other devices from his residence that are thought to be homemade firearms when they searched Yamagami’s residence. A personal computer and some books were also confiscated. Police arrived with a bomb disposal truck and investigators, worried about the presence of explosives, wore bulletproof-vests and held shields and fire extinguishers upon entering Yamagami’s home.

Yamagami was unemployed at the time of his arrest, having previously worked as a forklift operator at a warehouse in Kyoto Prefecture. A person who worked with him told Nikkei that Yamagami “was rather quiet and didn't seem to be aggressive.” Yamagami quit his job in May after telling his superiors that he had been feeling “tired” and “unwell.”

Abe was only in Nara because of a last-minute schedule change. He was originally scheduled to deliver a speech in Nagano Prefecture on the day he was killed. That event, in support of Sanshirō Matsuyama, a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidate for the prefecture's constituency in the upcoming upper house elections, was abruptly canceled after the Japanese media reported allegations of misconduct and corruption regarding Matsuyama. Instead, Abe was rescheduled to speak in Nara in support of Kei Satō, who has represented Nara while serving as a member of the House of Councillors since 2016. Although the LDP division in Nara stated that this event had not been previously known to the public, the Japanese media service NHK reported that this event had been widely announced on Twitter and on an announcement truck.

Abe was airlifted to Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara, where medics noted that he had no vital signs. Bullets dealt major damage to his heart. He also sustained a couple of neck wounds that damaged a crucial artery.

The killing was all the more shocking because Japan has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, resulting in one of the world’s lowest rates of gun crime. The country also has a very low homicide rate. The Associated Press reported that Japan had just 10 criminal gun cases last year despite a population of more than 125 million people. In 2018, the country only reported nine deaths from firearms, per data compiled by the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. Handguns are outlawed in Japan. The only guns allowed for sale are shotguns and air rifles, which can only be obtained following an exhaustive bureaucratic process that involves background checks, health evaluations, drug tests, and more.