Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe shot at during speech, collapses on stage

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe collapsed during a speech in the city of Nara, in western Japan. Initial reports say he may have been injured. An NHK reporter on-site heard something that sounded like a gunshot and saw Abe bleeding, Japan's NHK WORLD News reported.

As per Reuters, Shinzo Abe has been taken to hospital bleeding after collapsing while delivering a speech in the city of Nara in western Japan, public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday.

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shot in the city of Nara, reports Japan's NHK. pic.twitter.com/pw4TyCdArl — ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2022

A sound like a gunshot was heard at the time, and a male suspect has been detained, NHK said.

Kyodo News said the former premier was not conscious and appeared to be in cardiac arrest.

As per Reuters, the chief cabinet secretary will brief the media at 0400 GMT.

Shizo Abe- Japan’s longest-serving PM

Abe served two terms as prime minister to become Japan`s longest-serving premier before stepping down in 2020 citing ill health. But he has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) party, controlling one of its major factions.

His protege, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, faces an upper house election on Sunday in which analysts say he hopes to emerge from Abe`s shadow and define his premiership.

Abe has been best known for his signature “Abenomics” policy featured bold monetary easing and fiscal spending.

He also bolstered defence spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.

In a historic shift in 2014, his government reinterpreted the postwar, pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.

The following year, legislation ended a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defence or defending a friendly country under attack.

Abe, however, did not achieve his long-held goal of revising the U.S.-drafted constitution by writing the Self-Defense Forces, as Japan’s military in known, into the pacifist Article 9.

He was instrumental in winning the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo, cherishing a wish to preside over the Games, which were postponed by a year to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abe first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War Two. After a year plagued by political scandals, voter outrage at lost pension records, and an election drubbing for his ruling party, Abe quit citing ill health.

He became prime minister again in 2012.

Abe hails from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a great-uncle who served as premier.

(With Reuters inputs)