List of gun attacks on key figures in Japan

Tokyo, July 8: Friday's shocking assassination of Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in one of the world's safest countries stunned the world and drew condemnation.

Japan, a relatively low-crime nation with strict gun control, had just 10 gun-related criminal cases in 2021. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Tokyo had zero gun incidents, injuries or deaths during that same year, although 61 guns were seized there.

Hence, this incident has shocked not only Japan but the entire world. However, this is not the first instance of a gun attack on a prominent figure in the country.

Here is the list of several gun attacks on key figures, including politicians, in Japan in the past:

• In 1990, then-Nagasaki City Mayor Motoshima Hitoshi was seriously injured after being shot by a right-winger.
• In 1992, a right-wing gunman fired shots at the Liberal Democratic Party's then-Vice President Kanemaru Shin during a speech in Tochigi Prefecture of the country. Kanemaru was, however, uninjured.
• In 1994, former Prime Minister Hosokawa Morihiro was shot at by a former member of a right-wing group in a Tokyo hotel. Hosokawa escaped unharmed in the incident.
• In 1995, The National Police Agency's then-Commissioner General Kunimatsu Takaji was shot and seriously injured in front of his residence in Tokyo
• In 2007, Another Nagasaki mayor, Ito Itcho, was gunned down by a member of an organised crime group.

Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan which has one of the strictest gun control measures anywhere in the world. Abe, who is believed to have been killed by a self-modified gun, was provided the highest protection.