Former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, one of Japan’s most influential politicians in modern times, died on Friday after being shot at a campaign event.
Abe’s murder provoked shock and condemnation both in Japan and abroad.
Fatal attacks on national figures were rare in Japan’s post-WWII history. Below is a list of some of them.
In 1960, Nobusuke Kishi, then prime minister and Abe’s maternal grandfather, was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant affiliated with right-wing groups.
The perpetrator’s motivation was unclear. Kishi survived because the blade missed the main arteries.
In the same year, the leader of the Socialist Party of Japan, Inejiro Asanuma, was stabbed to death at a political rally by a right-wing youth.
In 1990, former Labor Minister Hyosuke Niwa died of wounds inflicted by a distraught man, and then Nagasaki City Major Hitoshi Motoshima was seriously injured after being shot by a rightist.
Another Nagasaki mayor, Iccho Itoh, was shot and killed in 2007 by a member of an organized crime group.
In 1992, a right-wing sniper shot at then Liberal Democratic Party vice president Shin Kanemaru as he was closing a speech. Kanemaru was not hurt.
In 1994, there was an attempt to shoot then Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa by a right-wing extremist, but Hosokawa was unharmed.
In 1996, Yoshiro Yanagawa, mayor of a small town in Mitake, was attacked at home and was seriously injured. Police suspect organized crime in the Yanagawa beating.
In 2002, Democratic Party deputy Kouki Ishiii was stabbed in front of his home by a representative of the right-wing group and died.
The office and home of Koichi Kato, the former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, was set on fire and burned down in 2006.
Source: CNN Brasil
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