Japan on Saturday marked a year since the shock assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, the country’s longest-serving leader and a towering political figure.
Abe was gunned down in broad daylight while giving a campaign speech in western Japan, targeted by a man allegedly angry over the former leader’s links to the Unification Church.
The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, was apprehended on the spot and is said to have resented the sect over large donations that his mother made that bankrupted his family.
Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan which has strict gun laws. Yamagami is believed to have used a homemade weapon.
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.
