Shinzo Abe - The African Mirror

Jul

2022

Analysis: The 2.5 seconds of security lapses that sealed Shinzo Abe’s fate

SATOSHI SUGIYAMA, SAM NUSSEY and JU-MIN PARK BODYGUARDS could have saved Shinzo Abe if they shielded him or removed him from the line of fire in the 2.5 seconds between a missed first shot and a second round of gunfire that fatally wounded him, according to eight security experts who reviewed footage of the former Japanese leader's assassination. The failure to protect Abe from the second shot followed what appeared to be a series of security lapses in the lead-up to the assassination of Japan's longest-serving prime minister on July 8, the Japanese and international experts said. Abe's killing in…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Shinzo Abe’s killer wielded homemade gun, grudge over mother’s bankruptcy

WORLD

TIM KELLY THE man who killed Shinzo Abe believed the former Japanese leader was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother's financial ruin and spent months planning the attack with a homemade gun, police told local media. Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, identified as the suspect on suspicion of murder on Friday after a man was seen in videos repeatedly shown on Japanese television calmly approaching Japan's longest-serving prime minister from behind and firing. Wiry and bespectacled with shaggy hair, the suspect was seen stepping into the road behind Abe, who was standing on a riser at…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Shinzo Abe’s assassin used a handmade firearm

WORLD

SATOSHI SUGIYAMA and CHANG-RAN KIM FORMER Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country where guns are tightly controlled and political violence almost unthinkable. Abe, 67, was pronounced dead around five and a half hours after the shooting in the city of Nara. Police arrested a 41-year-old man and said the weapon was a homemade gun. "I am simply speechless over the news of Abe's death," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Abe's protege, told reporters. Earlier, as Abe still lay in hospital where doctors tried to revive…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Japanese PM Abe resigns over worsening health

WORLD

ELAINE LIES and YOSHIFUMI TAKEMOTO PRIME Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving premier, has resigned because of poor health, ending a stint at the helm of the world's third-biggest economy during which he sought to revive growth and bolster its defences. "I cannot be prime minister if I cannot make the best decisions for the people. I have decided to step down from my post," Abe, 65, told a news conference. Abe has battled the disease ulcerative colitis for years and two recent hospital visits within a week had fanned questions on whether he could stay in the job until the…