Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe shot dead at Nara, Japan. Wife: Akie Abe, née Matsuzaki

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died at age 67 after being shot during a speech on Friday in Nara, Japan, doctors who were treating him confirmed.

Police said the shooting suspect admitted to shooting Abe. According to police, the suspect said he holds hatred toward a certain group, which he thought Abe was linked to.

He used a homemade gun in the shooting, and authorities confiscated several handmade pistol-like items from his apartment, police said.
Abe was the longest-serving Japanese prime minister in history. He stepped down as leader in 2020, citing health reasons.

See the full story here...

Japan's National Police Agency will review security arrangements for former prime minister Shinzo Abe after he was fatally shot during a campaign speech, the country's public broadcaster, NHK, reported Saturday.

Abe was shot in Nara prefecture in central Japan. He died on Friday from excessive bleeding and was pronounced dead at 5:03 p.m. local time, doctors at the Nara Medical University hospital said during a news conference on Friday.

NHK added that the police agency said the Nara prefectural police drew up a security plan for the former prime minister while in the city. The agency said that the prefecture's police officers and security personnel from the Tokyo Metropolitan police had remained on the lookout and had reportedly watched Abe from all sides during his speech, NHK reported.

The police agency did not state how many officers had been deployed to the site. However, it said several dozen, including one specially assigned personnel from the Tokyo police force and the Nara prefecture's plain-clothed police officers were on duty, NHK reported.

Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in Nara. He was 67.

Abe served two separate terms as the Japanese leader for the right-leaning Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) — the first from 2006 to 2007, then again from 2012 until 2020. His second stint was the longest consecutive term for a Japanese head of government.

He came from a family of Japanese prime ministers

Abe was born on Sept. 21, 1954, in Tokyo, to a prominent political family. Both his grandfather and great uncle served as prime minister, and his father was a former secretary general of the LDP.

Abe was first elected to Japan's House of Representatives in 1993, at age 38. He held a number of cabinet positions throughout the 2000s, and in 2003 became secretary general of the LDP. Four years later, he was named the party's president and became prime minister of Japan.

His first term was marred by controversies and worsening health, and he stepped down as party leader and prime minister in 2007. The end of Abe's first term opened a revolving door in which five different men held the prime minister post in five years until his re-election in 2012. He stepped down in 2020 citing ill health.

He continued to be an influential leader after leaving office

After leaving office, Abe remained head of the largest faction of the ruling LDP and remained influential within the party. He has continued to campaign for a stronger security policy and last year angered China by calling for a greater commitment from allies to defend democracy in Taiwan. In response, Beijing summoned Japan's ambassador and accused Abe of openly challenging China's sovereignty.

- - - - - - - - -

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot on the street in the city of Nara on Friday — a shocking act of violence in a country with one of the world's lowest rates of gun crime. The shooting suspect was arrested by police, who said he admitted to shooting Abe.

The shooting: Abe was shot at about 11:30 a.m. local time in Nara, east of Osaka, as he gave an election campaign speech on the street. He suffered a gunshot wound to the right side of his neck, according to officials in Tokyo. He was taken to the hospital first by ambulance, then by medical helicopter.

Rushed to the hospital: Abe arrived at the hospital in a state of cardiac arrest at 12:20 p.m. local time, according to doctors at Nara Medical University.

Confirmed dead: Abe was pronounced dead at 5:03 p.m. local time, according to the head of Nara Medical University. At a news conference at the hospital, doctors said the former leader died from excessive bleeding and the bullet that killed him had penetrated deep enough to reach his heart.


Abe redefined Japan's diplomatic and military policy
Abe will be remembered for boosting defense spending and pushing through the most dramatic shift in Japanese military policy in 70 years. In 2015, his government passed a reinterpretation of Japan's postwar, pacifist constitution, allowing Japanese troops to engage in overseas combat — with conditions — for the first time since World War II.

Abe argued the change was needed to respond to a more challenging security environment, a nod to a more assertive China and frequent missile tests in North Korea.

During his term, Abe sought to improve relations with Beijing and held a historic phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2018. At the same time, he tried to counter Chinese expansion in the region by uniting Pacific allies.

He attempted to build a personal relationship with former United States President Donald Trump. As Washington's relationship with Pyongyang tipped toward diplomacy, with both Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in holding historic summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Abe said he was "determined" to meet Kim. Abe wanted to normalize relations with North Korea and ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but his first priority was to bring some closure for the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 80s.

During his tenure, Japan's relations with South Korea soured. The two countries were engaged in a major dispute in which trade and military intelligence deals were scrapped, partly due to the legacy of World War II and Japan's brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

The "Abenomics"
Abe came to office during a time of economic turmoil and soon set about rebooting Japan's economy after decades of stagnation. Soon after he was re-elected prime minister in 2012, he launched a grand experiment popularly known as "Abenomics."

It included three so-called arrows — massive monetary stimulus, increased government spending, and structural reforms.

After a strong start, it faltered and in 2015, Abe fired "three new arrows" designed to boost gross domestic product. Any hopes they might eventually hit their mark were dashed when Covid-19 swept through the country in 2020, tipping Japan into recession.

One of Abe's major domestic achievements was securing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But the success of the much anticipated Tokyo Games was ultimately undone by the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the competition to be postponed to 2021. 

Abe declared a state of emergency months after the first cases were detected. His administration was also criticized for the low rate of testing, and an early lack of specialist medical equipment to treat the rising number of patients.

More successful was Abe's handling of the abdication of Emperor Akihito, the first Japanese monarch to step down in two centuries. He was succeeded by his son, Emperor Naruhito, in October 2019, starting the Reiwa era.

Abe is survived by his wife Akie Abe, née Matsuzaki, who he married in 1987. The couple did not have children.

This post is sponsored by:Dr Mobiles Limited 1 Huron Street
akapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344 and 
Mob: (021) 264-0000
Web - Map - Email - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flickr -  Auhtor
   

Top 15 Strangest Coincidences that does not sound real at all! 0212640000 iPhone Repair

It was written

Mark Twain was born on the day of the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1835, and died on the day of its next appearance in 1910. He himself predicted this in 1909, when he said: "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it."

Oregon's Columbian newspaper announced the winning Pick 4 lottery numbers for June 28, 2000 in advance. The newspaper had intended to print the previous set of winning numbers but erroneously printed those for the state of Virginia, namely 6-8-5-5. In the next Oregon lottery, those same numbers were drawn.

In 1979, the German magazine - Das Besteran - ran a writing competition. Readers sent in unusual stories, but they had to be based on true incidents. The winner, Walter Kellner of Munich, had his story published . He wrote about a time when he was flying a Cessna 421 between Sardinia and Sicily. He encountered engine trouble at sea, landed in the water, spent some time in an emergency dinghy and was then rescued. This story was spotted by an Austrian, also named Walter Kellner, who said that the German Kellner had plagiarized the story. The Austrian Kellner said that he had flown a Cessna 421 over the same sea, experienced engine trouble and was forced to land in Sardinia. It was essentially the same story, with a slightly different ending. The magazine checked both stories, and both turned out to be true, even though they were nearly identical.

Morgan Robertson's 1898 novella Futility had many parallels with the RMS Titanic disaster; the book concerned a fictional state-of-the-art ocean liner called Titan, which (like the Titanic) eventually collides with an iceberg on a calm April night whilst en route to New York, with many dying because of the lack of lifeboats. Various other details in the book coincide with the Titanic disaster. Later, she wrote a book, Beyond the Spectrum, that described a future war fought with aircraft that carried "sun bombs". Incredibly powerful, one bomb could destroy a city, erupting in a flash of light that blinds all who look at it. The war begins in December, started by the Japanese with a sneak attack on Hawaii.

Death calls twice

On July 28th 1900, the King of Italy Umberto Iwas having dinner in a restaurant in the city of Monza. It turned out later that the restaurant's owner looked identical to the king. The restaurant owner's name was Umberto, his wife's name was the same as the queen's and the restaurant was opened on the same date as the king's inauguration. The Restaurant-owner Umberto was shot dead the next day. So was King Umberto.

Claude Volbonne killed Baron Rodemire de Tarazone of France in 1872. 21 years earlier, the Baron's father had been murdered by somebody else called Claude Volbonne.

On February 13, 1746, a Frenchman, Jean Marie Dubarry, was executed for the murder of his father. Precisely 100 years later, on February 13, 1846, another Frenchman, also named Jean Marie Dubarry, was executed - for the murder of his father.

On the 26th November, 1911, three men were hanged at Greenberry Hill in London after being convicted of the murder of Sir Edmund Berry. Their names were Green, Berry and Hill.

Just in Time

The British actor Anthony Hopkins [who shot to fame as Hannibal Lecter] was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book The Girl From Petrovka by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins travelled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn't one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for his train home, he noticed a book apparently discarded on a bench. Incredibly, it was The Girl From Petrovka. That in itself would have been coincidence enough but in fact it was merely the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events. Two years later, in the middle of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was visited by George Feifer, the author. Feifer mentioned that he did not have a copy of his own book. He had lent the last one - containing his own annotations - to a friend who had lost it somewhere in London. With mounting astonishment, Hopkins handed Feifer the book he had found. 'Is this the one?' he asked, 'with the notes scribbled in the margins?' It was the same book.

As the inhabitants of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, were watching a scene in the film Around the World in 80 Days, where a hot air balloon was about to take off, their TV sets went off due to a power cut. Nearby, power lines had been damaged. A hot air balloon had crashed into them.

Hernán Cortés' arrival in Mexico in 1519 coincided with the year in the Mayan Calendar when it was predicted that the pale-faced man-god Quetzalcoatl would return to reclaim the city of Tenochtitlán. The Aztecs therefore assumed Cortés to be the legendary man-god, which assisted him in capturing the city and thence Mexico.

Lightning strikes back

A British officer, Major Summerford, while fighting in the fields of Flanders in February 1918 was knocked off his horse by a flash of lightning and paralyzed from the waist down. Summerford retired and moved to Vancouver. One day in 1924, as he fished alongside a river, lightning hit the tree he was sitting under and paralyzed his right side. Two years later Summerford was sufficiently recovered that he was able to take walks in a local park. He was walking there one summer day in 1930 when a lightning bolt smashed into him, permanently paralyzing him. He died two years later. But lightning sought him out one last time. Four years later, during a storm, lightning struck a cemetery and destroyed a tombstone. The deceased buried here? Major Summerford.

In 1899 a bolt of lightning killed a man as he stood in his backyard in Taranto, Italy.
Thirty years later his son was killed in the same way and in the same place.
On October 8, 1949, Rolla Primarda, the grandson of the first victim and the son of the second, became the third.

D-Day: The Normandy invasion

The date of the invasion June 6,1944 {6644} reflects the first great invasion associated with Normandy in 1066

In the first Invasion in 1066 Roger de Montgomery commanded portions of William the Conquerors Forces.

In the second Invasion 1944 Bernard Montgomery commanded portions of Eisenhower's Forces.

German General Rommel -Montgomery's adversary in an earlier Campaign in N. Africa Commits suicide on October 14, 1944 {101444}

The Battle of Hastings took place on October 14 {101466}

Eisenhower's Birthday was October 14 {101490}

The first Norman invasion initiated the first major immigration of Jews into Britain.

The second Norman invasion initiated the chain of events that returned the Jews to Israel

A. Lincoln and J.F. Kennedy

Life

Both presidents had 7 letters in their last name.

Both were over 6' feet tall.

Both men studied law.

Both seemed to have lazy eye muscles, which would sometimes cause one to deviate.

Both suffered from genetic diseases. It is suspected that Lincoln had Marfan's disease, and Kennedy suffered from Addison's disease.

Both served in the military. Lincoln was a scout captain in the Black Hawk War, and Kennedy served as a navy lieutenant in World War II.

Both were boat captains. Lincoln was a skipper for the Talisman, a Mississippi River boat, and Kennedy was skipper of the PT 109.

Both had no fear of their mortality and disdained bodyguards.

Both often stated how easy it would be to shoot the president. Lincoln supposedly said, "If somebody wants to take my life, there is nothing I can do to prevent it." Kennedy supposedly said "If somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it." Note that both these quotes are each 16 words long.

Death

Both presidents were shot in the head, on a Friday.

Both were seated beside their wives when shot. Neither Mrs. Lincoln nor Mrs. Kennedy was injured. Both wives held the bullet-torn heads of their husbands.

In each case, the man was injured but not fatally. Major Henry Rathbone was slashed by a knife, and Governor John Connolly was shot.

Lincoln sat in Box 7 at Ford's Theatre. Kennedy rode in car 7 in the Dallas motorcade.

Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Ford product, a Lincoln limousine.

Mrs. Kennedy insisted that her husband's funeral mirror Lincoln's as closely as possible.

The Assassins

Both assassins used three names: John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. (It should be noted that Lee Harvey Oswald was known as just Lee Oswald prior to the assassination.)

There are 15 letters in each assassin's name.

Both assassins struck when in their mid-twenties. Booth was born in 1838, and Oswald was born in 1939.

Each assassin lacked a strong father figure in his life. Booth's father died when he was 13 years old, and Oswald's father died before he was born.

Each assassin had two brothers whose careers he coveted. Booth's two brothers were more successful actors and Oswald envied his brothers' military lives.

Both assassins were privates in the military. Booth was a private in the Virginia Militia, and Oswald was a private in the Marine Corps.

Both assassins were born in the south.

Both assassins were known sympathizers to enemies of the United States. Booth supported the Confederacy and Oswald was a Marxist.

Both assassins often used aliases. Booth frequently used "J. Wilkes" and Oswald used the name "Alek J. Hidell."

Booth shot Lincoln at a theatre and was cornered in a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was cornered in a theatre.

Each assassin was detained by an officer named Baker. Lt. Luther B. Baker was leader of the cavalry patrol which trapped Booth at Garrett's Barn. Officer Marion L. Baker, a Dallas motorcycle patrolman, briefly detained Oswald on the second floor of the School Book Depository until he learned that he worked there.

Both assassins were killed with a single shot from a Colt revolver.

Both assassins were shot in a blaze of light-Booth after the barn was set afire, and Oswald in the form of television cameras.

Family and Friends

Both presidents were named after their grandfathers.

Both were born second children.

Both married while in their thirties. Lincoln married at 33 and Kennedy married at 36.

Both married dark-haired, twenty-four-year-old women.

Both wives died around the age of 64. Mary Todd Lincoln died in 1882 at age 63 years and 215 days, and Jackie Kennedy died in 1994 at age 64 years 295 days.

Both wives were known for their high fashion in clothes.

Both wives renovated the White House after many years of neglect.

Each couple had four children, two of whom died before becoming a teen.

Each couple lost a son while in the White House. Willie Lincoln died at age 12 in 1862, and Kennedy's son Patrick died two days after his birth in 1963.

Politics

Both presidents were elected to the House of Representatives in '46.

Both were runners-up for the party's nomination for vice-president in '56.

Both were elected to the presidency in '60.

Vice-Presidents

Southern Democrats named Johnson succeeded both Lincoln and Kennedy (Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Andrew Johnson was born in 1808, and Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908.

There are six letters in each Johnson's first name.

Both Johnsons served in the military. Andrew was a brigadier general in the Civil War and Lyndon was a commander in the U.S. Navy during WW2.

Both Johnsons were former southern senators.

Both Johnsons had urethral stones, the only presidents to have them.

Both Johnsons chose not to run for reelection in '68. 

This post is sponsored by:Dr Mobiles Limited
1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344 and Mob: (021) 264-0000
Web - Map - Email - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flickr