Live Updates: Shinzo Abe, Ex-Japanese Leader, Collapses After Gunshot Is Heard

TOKYO — Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan, collapsed and was left unconscious after he was apparently shot on Friday while giving a speech in western Japan, according to a fire official.

Mr. Abe, 67, appeared to be bleeding after a gunshot was heard in the city of Nara near Kyoto, according to a reporter for NHK, the public broadcaster. Kyodo News said Mr. Abe had been shot in the chest.

NHK, citing the police, said a suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, had been taken into custody. He was a Nara resident, the report said.

Seigo Yasuhara, an official in the command center at the Nara Fire Department, said that Mr. Abe was under cardiopulmonary arrest and that he had been taken by an ambulance to a medical evacuation helicopter. He was then transported to Nara Medical University Hospital, the Nara Fire Department said.

Mr. Abe was unconscious and showing no vital signs, Mr. Yasuhara said.

Mr. Abe was the country’s longest-serving prime minister and served two terms, from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020. He resigned in 2020 because of ill health.

The former prime minister was in Nara campaigning ahead of elections for the Upper House of Parliament scheduled for Sunday. Mr. Abe was giving a campaign speech on behalf of Kei Sato, 43, a current member of the Upper House running for re-election in Nara, when he was shot.

Fumio Kishida, the current prime minister, was on the campaign trail in Yamagata Prefecture and was to return to Tokyo, where he was expected to speak to the news media.

Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary to Prime Minister Kishida, said that a crisis management center had been set up in the prime minister’s office.

Rahm Emanuel, the American ambassador to Japan, said in a post on Twitter: “We are all saddened and shocked,” adding: “Abe-san has been an outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the U.S. The U.S. Government and American people are praying for the well-being of Abe-san, his family, & people of Japan.”

Show more

July 8, 2022, 12:32 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:32 a.m. ET

Israel’s ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, said he was shocked by the news. “Being one of the most prominent leaders of Japan, Abe san was amongst the architects of modern relations between Israel and Japan,” he said on Twitter. “We are all praying for his health.”

July 8, 2022, 12:31 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:31 a.m. ET Shinzo Abe, holding a microphone, campaigning in late June in Tokyo. Elections for the Upper House of Parliament are Sunday.Credit…Issei Kato/Reuters

TOKYO — Before he was wounded on Friday, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was speaking at a campaign event in Nara, urging voters to support his party in parliamentary elections on Sunday.

It was one of thousands of similar speeches going on all around the country as voters prepared to go to the polls in what had seemed likely to be an unexceptional campaign season.

Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party has had a virtual lock on the country’s politics since the end of World War II, and the big question hanging over the vote this Sunday was not whether it would be returned to power, but by what margin.

Mr. Abe resigned as prime minister in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. But he has remained one of the country’s most effective power brokers through his influence on members of his party. He had hoped that an overwhelming victory by the L.D.P. would enable him to make progress on one of his most dearly held political aspirations: revising Japan’s pacifist Constitution to allow the country to have a standing military.

Despite its near monopoly on political power, the L.D.P. has been generally unpopular for years. In a recent poll by Kyodo News, 28 percent of voters supported it. But it has managed to hold on to power because no other political party has effectively organized against it.

Speeches like Mr. Abe’s are typical in the 20 days before an election, the only period when campaigning is allowed. It’s common for there to be a police presence around famous politicians like Mr. Abe, but disruptions and violence of any type are extremely rare.

Show more

July 8, 2022, 12:24 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:24 a.m. ET

Shehzad Poonawalla, a spokesman for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said on Twitter that he was distressed to hear the news about Mr. Abe. “Shinzo Abe has been a true friend of India and my prayers are with his family, friends, supporters and people of Japan,” he said.

July 8, 2022, 12:14 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:14 a.m. ET

Seigo Yasuhara, an official in the command center at the Nara Fire Department, said that Mr. Abe is under cardiopulmonary arrest.

July 8, 2022, 12:10 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:10 a.m. ET

The United States ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, sent his prayers to Mr. Abe and the people of Japan. “We are all saddened and shocked,” he said on Twitter. “Abe-san has been an outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the U.S.”

Credit…Behrouz Mehri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

July 8, 2022, 12:10 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:10 a.m. ET

Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspect who is in custody, is 42 years old.

July 8, 2022, 12:09 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:09 a.m. ET

Abe was giving a campaign speech on behalf of Kei Sato a current member of the Upper House running for reelection in Nara.

July 8, 2022, 12:05 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:05 a.m. ET

Fumio Kishida, Japan’s current prime minister, was on the campaign trail in Yamagata Prefecture and is returning to Tokyo and is expected to speak with reporters.

July 8, 2022, 12:02 a.m. ET

July 8, 2022, 12:02 a.m. ET

Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, said that there was a gunshot at 11:30 and that the police have arrested one man. Mr Abe’s condition was unknown, he said. A crisis management center has been set up in the prime minister’s office, and Mr. Kishida is returning from the campaign trail to Tokyo.

July 7, 2022, 11:54 p.m. ET

July 7, 2022, 11:54 p.m. ET

Seigo Yasuhara, an official in the command center at the Nara Fire Department, said that he could not confirm that Shinzo Abe had been shot with a gun but that he had been carried by ambulance to a helicopter and was then taken to a regional medical center. He was unconscious and not showing any vital signs.

July 7, 2022, 11:47 p.m. ET

July 7, 2022, 11:47 p.m. ET

NHK is reporting that police said a man in his 40s and a Nara resident, has been taken into custody as a suspect.

July 7, 2022, 11:43 p.m. ET

July 7, 2022, 11:43 p.m. ET

Shinzo Abe was taken to Nara Medical University Hospital, according to the Nara Fire Department.

Credit…Kyodo News, via Associated Press

July 7, 2022, 11:34 p.m. ET

July 7, 2022, 11:34 p.m. ET Live TV coverage of Shinzo Abe, then prime minister, announcing his resignation in Tokyo in 2020.Credit…Kimimasa Mayama/EPA, via Shutterstock

When Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, announced in late 2020 that he would resign, he ended a term in office in which he pursued — with mixed results — a conservative agenda of restoring the country’s economy, military and national pride.

Mr. Abe, then 65, the grandson of a prime minister, was initially elected to Parliament in 1993 after the death of his father, a former foreign minister. He first served as prime minister beginning in 2006, but stepped down after a scandal-plagued year in office.

He became the country’s leader again in 2012, promising to fix its beleaguered economy and achieve his nationalist dream of amending Japan’s pacifist Constitution to allow for a full-fledged military.

After he had served nearly eight years in office, he said it was ailing health — a relapse of a bowel disease that had contributed to his previous exit in 2007 — that led him to resign.

The once-popular leader, however, had seen a decline in his standing with the Japanese people, and he was criticized for his handling of the country’s coronavirus epidemic and his support for an arrested member of his party.

Show more