The two shots that killed former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday have caused a huge commotion in Japan.
The news almost immediately flooded social networks.
The television news began to collect videos taken by people who were at the scene and recreated the movements of the author of the shots, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41 years old.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense confirmed that an individual by that name served for three years in the maritime forces from 2005.
The attack took place at Yamato-Saidaiji station in Nara city, at a time when few people were around.
Due to the strict law on the acquisition of firearms in Japan, the rare shootings usually take place between organized crime gangs, the
yakuza
(Japanese mafia).
When politicians and other well-known officials appear in public, the attention of guards and security forces is usually focused on the possibility of knife attacks.
More information
Shinzo Abe, a charismatic prime minister who marked the course of politics in Japan
Japan is one of the ten countries in the world with proportionally fewer weapons in the hands of civilians: 377,000 ―0.3 per 100 people―, according to the 2017 report of the Small Arms Survey, a project of the Institute of International and Development Studies of Japan. Geneva.
In the United States, the figure exceeded 393 million that year, or 120 per 100 people (the only country in the world with more weapons than inhabitants).
The most recent gunshot murder of a Japanese politician occurred in 2007, when Iccho Ito, the mayor of Nagasaki, a city that was atomic bombed at the end of World War II, was attacked by members of the
yakuza
.
An election campaign altered
The assassination has also altered the campaign for the parliamentary elections this Sunday, in which 125 of the 248 seats that make up the Upper House will be elected.
The electoral acts, in which Abe participated to promote the candidates of his party, were suspended when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida returned to his office and summoned all his ministers.
Knowing that Abe was struggling between life and death after three hours of operation in the hospital, Kishida condemned the attack with a broken voice from tears.
He did not suspend the electoral appointment, although it is expected that security measures will be reinforced in the public appearances of politicians.
An extra element of zeal is that the media will not release the names of the candidates Abe was campaigning for when he was assassinated.
The impact of the assassination is also greater because the murder occurred in Nara, the country's former capital.
Neighboring Kyoto, it is one of the most touristic places in Japan for having very old temples.
As a sign of the sense of security that has so far surrounded high-ranking politicians in the country, Abe's security services, which usually assess the risks of the place where they will hold their public acts, did not do so this time due to lack of time, since Abe's intervention in Nara was a last minute decision.
The effects this assassination will have on the security of political meetings in Japan remain to be seen.
In the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, members of a religious sect used plastic bags that looked like garbage to deposit the deadly substance, killing at least 13 people.
Since then, the litter bins have disappeared from stations and public places throughout Japan and only a few years ago some were re-installed under camera surveillance.
This Friday, much of the attention was focused on the images of the attack.
One of them collects the smoke caused by a projectile during the speech.
The cameraman reacts with a sudden movement of the camera and Abe is out of shot.
Security analysts say that the smoke produced by the first shot made visibility difficult and the Prime Minister's bodyguards did not know how to react.
The killer stepped back and fired a second shot, after which Abe fell to the ground with blood on his chest.
In another video, Yamagami can be seen before the assassination: he applauds like the other spectators and gradually stands behind Abe, as if calculating the distance.
He fires the first shot quickly and awkwardly, with a gun that looks like a box with two sawed-off barrels.
He made it himself and practiced repeatedly until he perfected his handling, according to police.
Yamagami, arrested at the scene, admitted the crime, after which the security forces entered his house and found explosive material.
Some images show explosives experts wearing protective suits and carrying what appear to be models of military ships.
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