By Oyintari Ben
On Saturday, Japan commemorated the first anniversary of the murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an election rally by a man enraged by his affiliation with the Unification Church.
Unaccustomed to gun violence, Japan’s long-serving prime minister’s death, captured on camera, shocked the country.
Akie Abe, the widow of Prime Minister Abe, attended a private mourning service at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other top government officials and legislators. After the service, the general public was allowed inside to leave floral gifts.
Tsuu Ogawa, a 49-year-old hotel employee who had her birthday on the day Abe was killed, was one of them.
As she delivered flowers to the shrine, she remarked, “I was astonished that such a terrible act as this could happen in Japan, and I pray that such a thing never happens again.
Abe is recognized for pushing economic policies such as dramatic monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and deregulation aimed at ending years of deflation. Critics said that these policies also widened the income divide.
Abe, who left office in 2020, revised Japan’s war-renouncing constitution to let Japanese troops engage in overseas combat for the first time since World War Two. Abe also promoted an aggressive defense strategy that raised military spending.
Atsuhiro Ueda, a 35-year-old office worker, said as he joined others at the shrine, “I will support lawmakers who carry on the work of Abe’s administration.
After intimate ties between the government’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Unification Church were exposed, Abe’s death led to a popular reaction against the party.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, who has not yet been put on trial, is suspected of killing the 67-year-old politician with a homemade gun comprised of metal and wood. He blamed the Unification Church in social media remarks made prior to the shooting for leaving his mother in financial difficulty.
