Shinzo Abe’s assassination: How Japan remembered the slain leader one year on

Japan on Saturday marked one year since former

during an election speech by a man angry at his links to the Unification Church.

The death of Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, which was caught on video, rattled a nation unused to gun violence.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other senior officials and lawmakers joined Abe’s widow, Akie, at a private memorial service at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo. The public was let in to offer flowers after the service ended.

Among them was Tsuu Ogawa, 49, a hotel worker, who celebrated her birthday the day that Abe was assassinated.

“I was shocked that such a terrible thing as this could happen in Japan, and I pray that such a thing never happens again,” she said carrying flowers to the temple.

for pursuing economic policies aimed at ending years of deflation, including aggressive monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and deregulation. Critics said those measures also opened up an income gap.

Abe, who stepped down in 2020, also championed an aggressive defence policy that increased military spending and reinterpreted Japan’s war-renouncing constitution to allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.

“I will support politicians who carry on the work of Abe’s administration,” Atsuhiro Ueda, a 35-year-old office worker, said as he joined others at the temple.

While Kishida has stepped back from Abe’s economic agenda, he has maintained his predecessor’s hawkish policies, announcing last year that Japan would double defence spending.

Backlash

Abe’s death triggered a public backlash against the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after close links between it and the Unification Church came to light.

Tetsuya Yamagami 42, who has yet to stand trial, is suspected of using a handmade firearm fashioned out of metal and wood to kill the 67-year-old politician. In social media posts before the shooting, he blamed the Unification Church for leaving his mother in financial straits.

Known globally for its mass weddings, the South Korean church has been blamed for causing financial hardship by seeking large donations from its followers.

Revelations that Abe and more than half of all LDP lawmakers had links to the church, with some accepting donations or using its followers as election workers, prompted high-level resignations, including that of Economic Revitalisation Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa.

Although Kishida was not among them, his public support slumped in the aftermath of the scandal.

Abe’s murder also prompted

Less than a year later, an attacker was able to approach Kishida at a campaign event and throw a homemade explosive. The prime minister was unharmed in the April event, and his attacker was detained at the scene.

‘Icon of Japanese people’

On Saturday, visitors from all walks of life formed a long queue outside Tokyo’s Zojoji Buddhist temple, offering flowers before framed pictures of a smiling Abe.

“I think he was the icon of Japanese people. He was the icon of the conservatives,” said mourner Tomoko Shimoda, 57.

She said “the way he communicated with other people, what he said publicly, and the way he behaved” made a lasting impression on her.

People react after offering prayer for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Zojoji temple. Source: AP / Shuji Kajiyama

Hiroyuki Kumagi, 69, said he was “a real worshipper of Mr. Abe”.

“I participated in the prayer at the last year’s national funeral, and of course I am here today,” he said.

In the western Nara region, people brought flowers and prayed outside Yamato-Saidaiji Station – the site of Abe’s shooting.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers a speech during a memorial service on the first death anniversary of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Credit: STR/AFP

‘A real patriot’

An outspoken scion of a political dynasty, Abe invigorated socially conservative movements through his push to amend the post-war pacifist constitution.

He attempted to move Japan’s regional relations past the bitter memories of World War II, stressing the nation’s history of pacifism since the war.

While he was perhaps Japan’s best-known leader overseas, at home, Abe was a divisive figure whose conservative values and high-handed ways alienated liberal voters.

His “Abenomics” economic programme, which promoted easy monetary policies and huge government spending, achieved uneven results, and his administration was linked to several political scandals.

He first came to power in 2006 but left after a year following turmoil in his cabinet, a huge election loss, and health problems.

He returned in 2012 and went on to become the longest-serving leader in Japan’s modern history.

“Mr. Abe alone had worked so hard to defend the country from crises, and everyone was relying on him. He was a real patriot,” said a 58-year-old visitor to Abe’s memorial at Zojoji temple.

“To be honest, I have never been so devastated even when a family member passed away. It’s been a year, but I still get teary.”

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