Japan ex-prime minister Abe taken to hospital after apparent shooting -NHK (updated)
08/07/2022 04:02
(Adds background, briefing at 0400 GMT)
TOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) - Japanese former prime minister
Shinzo Abe was taken to hospital on Friday after being shot from
behind by what appeared to be a man with a shotgun while
delivering a speech in the western city of Nara, public
broadcaster NHK said.
Abe, 67, appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest, the
network said and Kyodo news agency. Shots were heard and a white
puff of smoke was seen as Abe made a campaign stump speech
outside a train station, NHK said.
An NHK reporter on the scene said they could hear two
consecutive bangs during Abe's speech.
The chief cabinet secretary will brief media at 0400 GMT.
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.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Writng by Robert Birsel; Editing
by Christian Schmollinger and William Mallard)
((ran.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-4520-1228;))