Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shot during a campaign rally in Japan. He is known as the top leader of the pro-government group.This is the first time such an incident has taken place in Japan. Abe, a 67-year-old who was campaigning in Nara City, was shot during the campaign at 11.30am.
Shinzo is known as the top leader of the country's ruling right-wing party. According to Japan's national television agency NHK, shots were fired from close range while he was speaking.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital, Police have arrested a 41-year-old accused. The Japanese government reacted sharply to the incident, with Koichiro Matsumoto, Japan's deputy cabinet secretary for public affairs, saying "this is a barbaric attack."
But Shinzo Abe is a controversial figure in Japanese history, during World War II an apologist for Japan's myriad crimes including the sexual enslavement of Korean, Filipino, Chinese, and other women subjects of the Japanese Empire during the Second World War (i.e. "comfort women").
