Japan police admit flaws as Shinzo Abe's killing raises security questions

A top police official has acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed an assassin to fatally shoot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe while he was addressing a campaign rally.

Abe was shot from close range in the western city of Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested the attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of Japan's navy, at the scene.

Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka said on Saturday Abe's assassination was his "greatest regret” in a 27-year career.

“I cannot deny there were problems with our security,” Onizuka said. “Whether it was a setup, emergency response, or ability of individuals, we still have to find out. Overall, there was a problem and we will review it from every perspective.”

Some observers who watched videos of the attack noted a lack of attention in the open space behind Abe as he spoke.

A former Kyoto prefectural police investigator, Fumikazu Higuchi, said the footage suggested security was sparse at the event and insufficient for a former prime minister.

“It is necessary to investigate why security allowed Yamagami to freely move and go behind Mr. Abe,” Higuchi told a Nippon TV talk show.

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'There were problems'

Experts also said Abe was more vulnerable standing on the ground level, instead of atop a campaign vehicle, which is usually the case but was reportedly unavailable due to his hastily arranged visit to Nara.

“Looks like police were mainly focusing on frontward, while paying little attention to what's behind Mr. Abe, and nobody stopped the suspect approaching him,” said Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisis management professor at Nihon University. “Clearly there were problems."

Police said on Saturday autopsy results showed a bullet that entered Abe’s upper left arm damaged arteries beneath both collar bones, causing fatal massive bleeding.

Yamagami told investigators he acted because he believed rumours that Abe was connected to an organisation that he resents, police said.

Japanese media reported that the man had developed hatred toward a religious group that his mother was obsessed about and that caused his family financial problems. The reports did not specify the group.

According to the Asahi newspaper, Yamagami was a contract worker at a warehouse in Kyoto, operating a forklift. He was described as a quiet person who did not mingle with colleagues.

A next-door neighbour at his apartment told Asahi he never met Yamagami, though he recalled hearing noises like a saw being used several times late at night over the past month.

Police confiscated Yamagami's homemade gun at the site of the attack, and several others were later found at his apartment.

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