Shinzo Abe, 67, was giving a speech at a campaign rally when he was shot twice from behind with what appeared to be a homemade gun. The gunman was wrestled to the ground by police after the shooting.
I was just listening to a discussion of the assassination this morning (my morning). Apparently Japan has up until now been so bereft of political violence that it is common for even prominent politicians like Abe to have minimal security and maximum exposure to their constituents. There have certainly been protests before, but they didn’t descend into violence. In terms of gun deaths overall, they typically number in the double or single digits per year for the entire country. Unfortunately, this will likely mark a change in how Japanese politicians interface with their citizens.
Fair enough. Maybe I’m mostly thinking of how they compare with the US and its poor record in this area. Seems like a lot of this comes from ultra-nationalists of some stripe, no?
While nationalistic ideologues seem to dominate the political violence in Japan and the US, it’s a bit disingenuous to assign blanket statements to these things.
I was just listening to a discussion of the assassination this morning (my morning). Apparently Japan has up until now been so bereft of political violence that it is common for even prominent politicians like Abe to have minimal security and maximum exposure to their constituents. There have certainly been protests before, but they didn’t descend into violence. In terms of gun deaths overall, they typically number in the double or single digits per year for the entire country. Unfortunately, this will likely mark a change in how Japanese politicians interface with their citizens.
I don’t get why people think Japan is bereft of political violence. It’s been a steady occurrence since the early 20th century (history: https://theconversation.com/shinzo-abes-killing-the-history-of-political-violence-in-japan-186679). Here are some recent occurrences from this article:
Fair enough. Maybe I’m mostly thinking of how they compare with the US and its poor record in this area. Seems like a lot of this comes from ultra-nationalists of some stripe, no?
While nationalistic ideologues seem to dominate the political violence in Japan and the US, it’s a bit disingenuous to assign blanket statements to these things.
As I said, a lot, not all.