Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister who was slain on Friday while giving an election rally in the western city of Nara, is featured on the cover of Time magazine’s upcoming edition. After receiving two shots from a handmade shotgun, Abe, 67, passed away at the Nara Medical University due to blood loss. Tetsuya Yamagami, a suspect aged 41, is currently in detention and is said to have admitted to police that his first motivation was to harm Abe, the head of an organisation he thought was responsible for defrauding his mother.
Abe has appeared on the cover of Time four times; the first time was in the Asia edition of the magazine in September 2006, when he was about to become Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War II. He was referred to as “a forceful leader for a rejuvenated nation” on the cover.
A sea of mourners waiting to pay their ultimate respects to Japan’s twice-former prime minister welcomed Abe’s body back to Tokyo on Saturday morning.
Abe appeared once more on the cover of the Asia edition with the headline, “After Abe: The Young Champion Throws in the Towel,” following his resignation in 2007 due to bad health. Who will provide Japan with the necessary leadership?
Abe was on the cover of Time’s international edition in April 2014, two years into his second tenure as prime minister, as a “patriot… (who) dreams of a more robust, assertive Japan.”Since Japan is regarded as a pacifist country with some of the tightest gun prohibitions in the world, Shinzo Abe’s murder has shocked the world. Australia, the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and others have all expressed their sorrow together.
On Twitter, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar expressed his sorrow at Abe’s unexpected passing. He referred to the late leader of the Liberal Democratic Party as a “sincere seeker” and “admirer of spirituality.”
