A former soldier attacked the life of the politician who broke the taboo of Japanese war power, overcoming the constitutional and psychological limits inherited from the Second World War. The scant information on the profile of the man who hit Shinzo Abe is limited to his background in the “self-defense forces” as the Japanese military is called: Tetsuya Yamagami41, would have served in the Navy until 2005. He would have hit the former prime minister “for hatred”, but – according to the police – after the arrest Yamagami would have excluded “political motivations”.
Japan, former premier Abe seriously injured: the moment of the arrest of the attacker
His rancor, however, was so deep that it prompted him to build the weapon himself: he made a “shotgun”, assembling the parts perhaps following the instructions found on the web. The images of Yamagami’s arrest show the weapon wrapped in duct tape, a method of concealing it, but also of reinforcing its structure. The dimensions are slightly larger than a pistol: those of the “sawn-off” shotguns dear to the robbers of the seventies. It is difficult to understand the caliber: however, it appears superior to the 12-gauge cartridges of hunting rifles. Two shots available, fired at close range. The attacker had secured the weapon to the back with a shoulder strap, to compensate for the recoil caused by the explosion of the first shot.
In Japan firearms are very rare, with extremely limited circulation and strict restrictions on their use even for the police forces: officers circulate with the gun only in extraordinary situations and Abe’s escort also faced the bomber without using their weapons.