People wonder ‘why did this happen in Japan?’

The assassination of Shinzo Abe just before lunchtime on a busy street corner has been met with disbelief in a country where few have ever seen a gun drawn, let alone used one.

A man pays his respects on Saturday at a makeshift memorial outside Nara’s Yamato-Saidaiji railway station where Shinzo Abe was shot on Friday. Picture: Getty Images

The assassination of Shinzo Abe just before lunchtime on a busy street corner has been met with disbelief in a country where few have ever seen a gun drawn, let alone used one.

“Why did this happen in Japan?” said Maiko Kurihara, a 41-year-old resident of Nara, the city where Mr Abe, a former prime minister, was gunned down a day earlier. Like many others, Ms Kurihara came to the site of the attack with a bouquet of flowers.

Yoshihiro Sakamoto, a 81-year-old retiree from outside Nara, wiped his tears with a towel after offering white and yellow chrysanthemums – flowers associated with mourning – on a table near the spot Mr Abe was shot. “We can no longer feel assured that Japan is peaceful,” Mr Sakamoto said.

A line of mourners grew steadily longer on Saturday morning despite sweltering temperatures and a sudden rain shower. Several expressed their disbelief at the use of a gun in the attack and their regret at the loss of one of Japan’s most influential modern leaders.

Shooting deaths are extremely rare in Japan. Over the five years to 2021, there were fewer than four each year on average and only one last year, according to police data. The figures don’t include suicides or accidents.

Gun ownership is banned in principle in Japan, but gun licences for hunting and sports shooting can be obtained following a process that involves mental and physical health assessments, background checks and safety training.

On the evening after the incident, diners at a pub-style restaurant near the suspect’s apartment said they were shocked by Mr Abe’s murder.

While drinking with her husband, Mai Yoshida said she was familiar with guns because she grew up in a mountainous area in western Japan where hunters used rifles to kill wild boars. “But to me, they were never associated with killing humans,” said the 29-year-old shoe company worker.

Some diners expressed particular surprise at the location of the attack in Nara, a slower-paced city of around 350,000 people in western Japan famous for its Buddhist temples and roaming deer population.

In Japan, there is less than one gun for every 100 people, compared with around 120 guns per 100 people in the US, according to data compiled by the Graduate Institute of International Development Studies in Geneva.

The improvised weapon police say was used in the attack on Mr Abe highlighted how those who want guns can work around Japan’s restrictions. It appeared to be a double-barrelled gun crudely made from metal pipe and duct tape.

Shodai Tanaka, a 23-year-old from Nara, said technology such as 3D printers could be used to make a gun easily. “It’s creepy to think of the man making it at his home, which is really close by,” he said.

Taxi driver Munehiro Minami was nearby as Mr Abe received emergency medical treatment where he was shot. Police arrived quickly to block off the area. “No one was fleeing the scene. Everyone was trying to get closer,” Mr Minami said. “I believe this is a difference between Japan and the US.”

The immediate impact of the shooting will be tightened security around political rallies, where politicians often mingle with the public. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke at a rally close to Tokyo on Saturday morning with a team of police officers present.

Major acts of public violence aren’t unheard of in Japan, but they typically don’t involve guns. About 30km from the site of the Nara shooting, a man killed around two dozen people in an arson attack on a mental health clinic in December last year. In 2016, a former worker at a home for the mentally disabled stabbed to death 19 residents at the facility.

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