The Brief No. 27
10 July 2022
The assassination of the former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe has shocked the nation and the world. Shinzo Abe the longest serving Prime Minister in Japan was shot by Testuya Yamagami on 08 July 2022.
When the news broke, there was a temptation to blame the incidence to gun proliferation, a discussion currently raging in the US and many parts of the world. However, it was reported that Yamagami used a homemade gun in committing this crime.
The other temptation was to link the incident to the perpetrator’s mental health; naturally such could not be written out.
However, the truth is that Abe’s assassination is a consequence of rising political intolerance, a growing phenomenon across the globe. It is a consequence of rise of right-wing politics, weakening of democracy and complacency on the side of proponents of democracy. Democracy is work in progress, it must not stop after elections, its tenants must be proliferated through education and establishment of democratic institutions.
Afrasid is available for analysis and commentary