Ex-Japan PM Abe Mourned 3 Years after Shooting

   Nara/Tokyo, July 8 (Jiji Press)--People paid tribute to the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday, exactly three years after he was gunned down, with many visiting a memorial flower stand in the western Japan city of Nara.
   The stand was set up by a group of volunteers in front of Kintetsu Railway Co.'s Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara. Since the country is in the middle of the official campaign period for the July 20 House of Councillors election, the front side of the flower stand was covered with white cloth to make it difficult for a portrait of Abe to be seen from outside.
   "Abe had strong leadership skills," said Satoshi Noda, a 21-year-old university student from the western Japan city of Kyoto. "I hope that was the last time for a politician to die during an election period."
   Abe was shot in the neck and around the chest with a homemade gun around 11:30 a.m. on July 8, 2022, while he was delivering a speech for an Upper House election candidate near the train station. He was confirmed dead at a hospital later that day.
   The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, has said that he had a strong grudge against the Unification Church, a controversial religious group, and that he assaulted Abe as he believed that the former prime minister had links with the organization. A lay-judge trial for Yamagami, 44, is set to start Oct. 28 this year at Nara District Court.

(2025/07/08-15:19)

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