Former Japanese PM assassinated

CNN reports:

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has 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. 

He was Japan’s longest serving PM having held the post twice for a total of almost nine years.

The assassination is baffling. He was a former, not current, PM. Political violence is almost unheard of in Japan, let alone gun violence. In a country of 125 million they had only 10 gun deaths last year.

The killer has confirmed he killed him because he disapproved of him.

Japan still has the death penalty. It is very rarely used in a case of a single murder. It will be interesting if they seek it in this case.