From Washington to Tehran, Seoul to Kyiv, political leaders around the world have condemned the assassination of the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and paid tribute to the country’s longest-serving leader.
Abe was shot while campaigning for parliamentary elections, and died in hospital several hours later. The US president, Joe Biden, said he was “stunned, outraged and deeply saddened” by the killing. “This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him,” he said. “Even at the moment he was attacked, he was engaged in the work of democracy.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, praised the politician’s “great vision”, and said his death was “a loss for Japan, a loss for the world”.
Abe’s landmark policies included the bold “Abenomics” initiative to reform and kickstart the country’s faltering economy, and efforts to beef up a military he felt was unduly restrained by commitments to pacifism after the second world war.
Tehran, in a moment of rare unity with Washington, also condemned the shooting as an “act of terrorism”. “As a country that has been a victim of terrorism and has lost great leaders to terrorists, we are following the news closely and with concern,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Across Asia, peers paid tribute to a man who championed free trade and sought to counter China’s growing might. After the former US president Donald Trump pulled out of a landmark trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he helped keep the deal alive.
Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said that under Abe, Japan had emerged as “one of Australia’s most like-minded partners in Asia”. With his death, the country had lost one of its “closest friends on the world stage … His legacy was one of global impact, and a profound and positive one for Australia”.
Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, mourned the loss of “an important and close friend”, in the island’s battle to chart its own course in Beijing’s shadow. Abe was also an important leader in the international community, she added.
Some neighbours who suffered at the hands of Japanese troops in the second world war had been angered by Abe’s sometimes controversial stance on atrocities committed then, including visiting Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which commemorates war criminals along with fallen service personnel.
But the violence of his death united them in condemnation. South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, described the shooting as an “unforgivable act of crime” and sent condolences.
Europe woke up to news of the horrific attack, with solidarity across the continent. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, sent his condolences over the “horrible news of a brutal assassination”, adding: “This heinous act of violence has no excuse.”
The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, took time away from his political troubles to salute Abe’s “global leadership through uncharted times”.
Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, praised Abe’s “innovative spirit and his reforming vision” and sent condolences, along with Germany, Spain, Poland, France and others.
In China, Abe’s death drew mixed responses. Online, tens of thousands of comments criticised Abe, including some that described his injuries as a comfort to the souls of people who had died in Japan’s invasion of China during the second world war.
“Hope he’s not OK,” some wrote, while others half-jokingly called the shooter “a hero” or “anti-Japan hero”, the Associated Press reported.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian declined to comment on the online discussions. He expressed sympathies with Abe’s family and said the shooting shouldn’t be linked to bilateral relations.
