Shinzo Abe Assassinated

[Axaday]

July 8, 2022 Shinzo Abe shot dead in Nara, Japan

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a speech in Nara, Japan. Follow here for live updates.

www.cnn.com

It is sad and it is and will be a major shock to Japan. I am over here with 2 little girls starting school and thinking I would kinda like to live in a country where someone who wants to assassinate a world leader needs to figure out how to build his own hand made gun.

Japan has more than a quarter our population and only had one gun death last year. And it isn't because they make sure all the good guys have guns everywhere.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

He was their longest-serving prime minister. RIP.

May the killer face swift justice.

 

[Teufel]

Terrible, I went to bed hoping he might by some miracle hold on but it was pretty grim.

 

[The Doctor Who]

Jesus... What a senseless death.

 

[Corvus]

Horrid and pointless.

 

[Paladin]

Apparently the assassin believed Abe was Jewish.

安倍元首相銃撃で山上容疑者「ある特定の宗教団体に恨み」 ｜ FNNプライムオンライン

逮捕された山上徹也容疑者(41)が、安倍晋三元首相を銃撃した動機について、「ある特定の宗教団体と安倍...

nordot.app

"Senseless" was just scratching the surface of this.

 

[MEDdMI]

I can't stress enough how unusual this is for Japan. Probably doesn't seem like a big deal in US with all the gun violence. We're talking about a country where people regularly leave doors unlocked, it's that safe. I'm getting flashbacks to the Sarin gas attacks. Just so senseless.

 

[Ironbite4]

They're pulling out more guns from the nutjob's apartment. Holy crap.

Ironbite-all DIY jobs and they are interesting.

 

[Pocket]

I can't stress enough how unusual this is for Japan. Probably doesn't seem like a big deal in US with all the gun violence.

I dunno, when was the last time a major US political figure was straight-up assassinated? I can't even recall any in my lifetime.

 

[Paladin]

I dunno, when was the last time a major US political figure was straight-up assassinated? I can't even recall any in my lifetime.

The Kennedys; John F in '63 and Bobby in '68.

Reagan got shot; Clinton got shot AT & somebody threw a shoe at Dubya.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I'm not sure recognizing the fact that we in the US have avoided any actual assassinations in the past 50+ years, when we have so many thousands of gun deaths every single year, is at all the correct metric, when we can so easily point to Japan's near total lack of gun deaths (despite this very real tragedy of recent days).

 

[Teufel]

The grenade that landed within 60 ft of George W. Bush but failed to detonate seems more relevant than the shoe.

 

[Pocket]

I'm not sure recognizing the fact that we in the US have avoided any actual assassinations in the past 50+ years, when we have so many thousands of gun deaths every single year, is at all the correct metric, when we can so easily point to Japan's near total lack of gun deaths (despite this very real tragedy of recent days).

My point is that the public absolutely would not, as MEDdMI suggested, be as blasé about an assassination as they are toward mass shootings. In fact, the attempt on Reagan's life was exactly what prompted one of the biggest waves of gun control laws in US history.

Am I saying the solution to our gun control problem is for somebody to shoot a current or former president, specifically a Republican one? The law requires that I say "no."

 

[Axaday]

If it went that way a whole generation would be taught that when a liberal gets a gun these things happen.

 

[Anonymous X]

The grenade that landed within 60 ft of George W. Bush but failed to detonate seems more relevant than the shoe.

Reminds me, we used to have dramatic assassination attempts on prime ministers when the Provisional IRA was still a thing – infamously blowing up an entire hotel in Brighton where the government were staying, and launching mortar shells into the back garden of Number 10 Downing Street. That all ended in 1998 with the Good Friday agreement, although unfortunately we had an MP shot and killed by a lone far-right extremist during the Brexit referendum campaign back in 2016.

 

[wonko the sane?]

If it went that way a whole generation would be taught that when a liberal gets a gun these things happen.

*Sigh*... This.

And it could a literal maga hat wearing nutter claiming that his "rino hunting license" he paid 10000 to trump for was legally valid. And liberals will still be blamed and despite the fact that a ******* president was murdered: there will also be an accompanying wave of "d'ere taking ours GUNZ!" and unprecedented AR-15 sales.

Edit: picturing maga folk as w40k space orkz is actually ridiculously humazing for maga, so I suggest no one does it.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Apparently the assassin believed Abe was Jewish.

安倍元首相銃撃で山上容疑者「ある特定の宗教団体に恨み」 ｜ FNNプライムオンライン

逮捕された山上徹也容疑者(41)が、安倍晋三元首相を銃撃した動機について、「ある特定の宗教団体と安倍...

nordot.app

"Senseless" was just scratching the surface of this.

That's not true. The police have not released any information regarding the exact religious groups, but currently it is rumoured in Japan to be the Korean "Unification Church".

The suspect in former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's fatal shooting told police he believed Abe's grandfather had brought into Japan a religious group he harbored a grudge against, investigative sources said Monday.

Police suspect Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, had believed unreliable information on the internet prompted him to turn his hostility toward former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi against his grandson, who was shot dead during a stump speech on Friday, the sources said.

Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japan branch of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, said Monday at a news conference in Tokyo that Yamagami's mother became a follower of its group around 1998 and that the family suffered financial ruin sometime around 2002....

(Source: - https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...aving-hostility-against-abes-grandfather.html )

"...The police did not specify which organisation it was, but Japanese social media pointed the finger at the Unification Church. The former premier and other political figures had links to the sect, but a clearer picture will have to await the outcome of the investigation. How the Unification Church spread from Korea to Japan..."

(Source: - https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Tokyo:-Abe's-killer-wanted-to-target-a-'religious-group'-56226.html )

I can't stress enough how unusual this is for Japan. Probably doesn't seem like a big deal in US with all the gun violence. We're talking about a country where people regularly leave doors unlocked, it's that safe. I'm getting flashbacks to the Sarin gas attacks. Just so senseless.

It's not THAT safe. Everyone I know in Japan here locks their doors. Crime is still a big thing and gun deaths, although small, are not unheard of. A Yakuza hit on people in a bar in Gunma, near me at the time, was pretty big news, and many people have been killed by other weapons and even cars (such as in Akihabara, which is just down the train line from me). Several Japanese men have made international news by abducting, raping, killing, dismembering (and in one case, actually eating) young foreign women. I actually met one of the girls just prior to her death.

 

[Cyoti]

It's not THAT safe. Everyone I know in Japan here locks their doors. Crime is still a big thing and gun deaths, although small, are not unheard of.

The gun deaths in Japan are not even comparable to the incidents in places likes America. These are all firearm related incidents in Japan from 2012-2021 (excluding suicides/accidents).

I am not saying it's okay, but the number of incidents in 2021 alone would probably be just a week in a city like NYC (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00052/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-june-2022).

And we know cops in Japan probably aren't underreporting since falling crime rates have made them go after people for more and more petty crimes to justify their existence (https://archive.ph/8PAvk#selection-671.30-674.0). And iirc, cops in places that were not Tokyo were trying to "create" crime to drum up business.

 

[Wheelimus]

2021's yearly rate would easily be surpassed by one week in Indianapolis, IN. Hell my little college town an hour away from there is seeing a shooting a week at least. It's really bad.

As for the actual topic here really tragic, can't believe it happened.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

The gun deaths in Japan are not even comparable to the incidents in places likes America. These are all firearm related incidents in Japan from 2012-2021 (excluding suicides/accidents).
View attachment 7560 I am not saying it's okay, but the number of incidents in 2021 alone would probably be just a week in a city like NYC (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00052/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-june-2022).

And we know cops in Japan probably aren't underreporting since falling crime rates have made them go after people for more and more petty crimes to justify their existence (https://archive.ph/8PAvk#selection-671.30-674.0). And iirc, cops in places that were not Tokyo were trying to "create" crime to drum up business.

I didn't state that "firearms" offenses were comparable. I stated that Japan isn't as safe as some may think and used examples of various violent crimes to highlight that.

Here is a general look at crime in Japan:

- https://livejapan.com/en/article-a0002373/

However, if we look at rape, for example, it would seem Japan is "safer", but:

- https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2017/06/sex-crimes-japan-go-unreported/

- https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/07/29/japans-not-so-secret-shame

- https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210402/p2a/00m/0na/041000c

Sexual and physical abuse of minors has also been criticised in Japan, due to the police, social services and schools not communicating or taking action:

- http://www.japansubculture.com/chil...-kids-to-their-parents-until-they-are-killed/

- https://zenbird.media/japan-struggles-to-fight-child-abuse-protect-child-rights/

There are, of course, natural disasters and other dangers in Japan:

- https://www.scti.co.nz/travel-advice/dangers-in-japan

Plus, the government and other related agencies have been criticised for allowing dangerous incidents to happen (or have done little to fix the problems caused by them ) :

- https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...liable-for-damages-over-fukushima-crisis.html

- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-mercury-poisoning-victims-minamata-disease-tests-decades-later/

The (slightly outdated, but still worth a look) book, "Dogs and Demons", covers related issues such as these above:

- https://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Demons-Tales-Dark-Japan/dp/0809039435

As for attacks on foreign women by Japanese males (and the inaction that the Japanese police were possibly guilty of) :

- https://www.chillingcrimes.com/blogs/news/lucie-blackman

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lindsay_Hawker (I briefly met/saw her in a nightclub in Chiba just prior to her death...)

- https://allthatsinteresting.com/issei-sagawa (WARNING - Disturbing imagery/prose might be included in this link).

Also, the high suicide rate, deaths from overwork and deaths of those who live alone are also issues, due to social problems and a lack of care for those that need it:

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodokushi

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoshi

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan

Some people attribute this to a feeling that Japan is not a happy place to live in:

- https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00438/japan-judged-low-on-happiness-despite-longevity.html

Also, as a non-Japanese living in Japan, the Japanese Police should be considered as dangerous. Perhaps not for the "shoot-to-kill" reasons of American police, but for their possibly infamous racism and a legal system that allows anyone to basically be jailed for at least 30 days without access to a lawyer and exposed to coercion to sign a confession, whether you're guilty or not:

- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/4/12/keeping-foreigners-out-of-japan

- https://thehill.com/policy/internat...warns-of-racial-profiling-by-japanese-police/

(There are more examples, if you search).

Also, Japan doesn't consider international child abduction of (half) Japanese children by their Japanese parent a crime, even if that child has a foreign passport and no Japanese passport:

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_child_abduction_in_Japan

- https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...ench-mans-wife-over-child-custody-rights.html

Violent, non-gun crime has still been reported in Japan:

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara_massacre

- https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/25/world/japan-knife-attack-deaths/index.html

- https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...s-killed-in-2019-arson-attack-remembered.html

- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59257736

Not to mention the domestic Japanese terrorism, which killed many people in Tokyo:

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack

So, although we might not be at as at risk of gun violence in Japan, it's not as safe as some believe it to be.