Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday paid tribute to former Prime Minister of Japan late Shinzo Abe while attending his state funeral in Tokyo on behalf of the government and people of Bangladesh. Foreign Minister Momen paid tribute to late Shinzo Abe by placing a floral wreath. Selima Ahmed, MP and Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Shahabuddin Ahmed were present. Later in a courtesy meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Momen expressed deep grief over the death of Shinzo Abe on behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the people of Bangladesh. Recalling the late Abe's contribution, he said, Shinzo Abe was a true friend of Bangladesh and during his time, the relationship between the two countries developed into a comprehensive partnership. Read: Shinzo Abe was a true friend of Bangladesh: Momen Akie Abe, wife of late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was present at the event. The foreign minister also recalled her (Akie Abe) visit to Bangladesh in 2014 with late Shinzo Abe. The state funeral was attended by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino and other foreign and Japanese dignitaries.

Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan, was a true friend of Bangladesh, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said Thursday. Abe will forever be remembered for his contribution to regional and global peace, he added. Momen was speaking at a condolence programme organised by the Embassy of Japan in Bangladesh and Dhaka University (DU). The Department of Japanese Studies of DU and the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka in association with the Japan-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Japanese Universities Alumni Association of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Ikebana Association and Kazuko Bhuiyan Welfare Trust arranged the condolence programme "Tribute to Abe Shinzo" in Dhaka. Professor Md Akhtaruzzaman, vice-chancellor of DU, and Japanese Ambassador to Bangladeshi Ito Naoki also joined the event to pay tribute to Abe, Japan's best-known politician and longest-serving prime minister, who was gunned down while speaking at a political campaign event in the city of Nara. They conveyed their condolences to Abe and his family. Also read: Japan police chief to resign over Abe shooting death  

The body of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was returned to Tokyo on Saturday after he was fatally shot during a campaign speech in western Japan a day earlier. Abe was attacked in the city of Nara and airlifted to a local hospital but died of blood loss despite emergency treatment including massive blood transfusions. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan's navy, at the scene on suspicion of murder. Police confiscated the homemade gun he used, and several others were later found at his apartment. The attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, told investigators he plotted the shooting because he believed rumors that Abe was connected to an organization that he resents, according to police. Japanese media reported that the man had developed hatred toward a religious group his mother was devoted to. The reports did not specify the group. A black hearse carrying Abe's body and accompanied by his wife, Akie, arrived at his home in Tokyo's upscale residential area of Shibuya, where many mourners waited and lowered their heads as the vehicle passed. Abe’s assassination ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election shocked the nation and raised questions over whether security for the former prime minister was adequate. Police on Saturday said autopsy results showed that a bullet that entered Abe's upper left arm damaged arteries beneath both collar bones, causing fatal massive bleeding. Some observers who watched videos of the assassination on social media and television 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. Experts also said Abe was more vulnerable standing on the ground level, instead of atop a campaign vehicle, which reportedly could not be arranged because his visit to Nara was hastily planned the day before. In videos circulating on social media, the attacker, identified as 41-year-old Yamagami, can be seen with the homemade gun hanging from his shoulder, standing only a few meters (yards) behind Abe across a busy street, and continuously glancing around. A few minutes after Abe stood at the podium and started his speech — as a local party candidate and their supporters stood and waved to the crowd — Yamagami can be seen firing the first shot, which issued a cloud of smoke, but the projectile apparently missed Abe. As Abe turned to see where the noise came from, a second shot went off. That shot apparently hit Abe's left arm, missing a bulletproof briefcase raised by a security guard who stood behind the former leader. Read: Bangladesh observing state mourning paying respect to Abe Abe fell to the ground, with his left arm tucked in as if to cover his chest. Campaign organizers shouted through loudspeakers asking for medical experts to provide first-aid to Abe, whose heart and breathing had stopped by the time he was airlifted to a hospital where he later pronounced dead. According to the Asahi newspaper, Yamagami was a contract worker at a warehouse in Kyoto where he was a forklift operator and known as a quiet person who did not mingle with his colleagues. A next-door neighbor 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. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who early on had a frosty relationship with Abe, sent a condolence message to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday, a day after most other world leaders issued their statements. Xi credited Abe with making efforts to improve China-Japan relations and said he and Abe had reached an important understanding on building better ties, according to a statement posted on China's Foreign Ministry website. He also told Kishida he is willing to work with him to continue to develop neighborly and cooperative relations. Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, but his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many. When he resigned as prime minister, Abe blamed a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he’d had since he was a teenager. He said then it was difficult to leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution. That ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support. Also read: Japan's tight gun laws add to shock over Abe's assassination Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capability. But Abe made enemies by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition. Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs. Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Tokyo had no gun incidents, injuries or deaths in the same year, although 61 guns were seized. Abe was proud of his work to strengthen Japan’s security alliance with the U.S. and shepherding the first visit by a serving U.S. president, Barack Obama, to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” when it was not. He became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health. The end of Abe’s scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability. When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms. He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japan’s defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan’s international profile.

The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in broad daylight Friday shocked a world that has come to associate Japan with relatively low crime and strict gun control. Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Abe was shot in the back while campaigning in the city of Nara for parliamentary candidates. He died at a hospital, two days before the election. The suspect apparently circumvented the nation's ultra-tight gun regulations by building his own weapon. Police said the 15-inch (40-centimeter) device was obviously homemade, and one expert compared it to a muzzle-loading gun. Authorities confiscated similar weapons when they raided the suspect's nearby one-room apartment. The motive of the man, who was taken into custody at the scene, remained unclear. Fatal gun violence is virtually unheard of in Japan, and most Japanese go through life without ever handling, or even seeing, a real gun. Stabbings are more common in killings. Major universities have rifle clubs, and Japanese police are armed, but gun ownership rights have been a distant issue for decades. Even police rarely resort to firing their pistols. With a population of 125 million, the country had just 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in a single death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Read: PM conveys condolences at losing 'statesman' Abe The densely populated capital of Tokyo had zero gun incidents, injuries or deaths during that same year, although 61 guns were seized there. "Japanese people are in a state of shock,” said Shiro Kawamoto, professor at the College of Risk Management at Nihon University in Tokyo. “This serves as a wake-up call that gun violence can happen in Japan, and security to protect Japanese politicians must be re-examined,” Kawamoto said. “To assume this kind of attack will never happen would be a big mistake.” Abe’s security team may face serious questions. But because such attacks are extraordinary in Japan, relatively light security is the norm, even for former prime ministers. In remarks in Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden described the “profound impact” of the shooting “on the psyche of the Japanese people.” “This is a different culture — they’re not used to" gun violence “as unfortunately we are. Here in the United States, we know how deep the wounds of gun violence go from communities that are affected. And this assassination is a tragedy that all the people of Japan are feeling.” Japan's last high-profile shooting occurred in 2019, when a former gang member was shot at a karaoke venue in Tokyo. Under Japanese law, possession of firearms is illegal without a special license. Importing them is also illegal. The same rules apply to some kinds of knives and certain other weapons, like crossbows. People who wish to own firearms must go through a stringent background check, including clearance by a doctor, and declare information about family members. They must also pass tests to show they know how to use guns correctly. Those who pass and purchase a weapon must also buy a special locking system for it at the same time. Passing those hurdles will allow a license holder to shoot at clay targets. Hunting requires an additional license. The weapon used in the attack on Abe was probably a “craft-made” firearm, according to N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of Armament Research Services, a specialist arms investigations firm. He compared the weapon to a musket in which the gunpowder is loaded separately from the bullet. Also read: Shinzo Abe, powerful former Japan PM, leaves divided legacy “Firearms legislation in Japan is very restrictive, so I think what we’re seeing here, with what’s probably a muzzle-loading weapon, is not just an attempt to circumvent the control of firearms, but also the strict control of ammunition in Japan,” he said.

Bangladesh will observe one-day state mourning Saturday for former Japanese prime minister and the country's true friend Shinzo Abe. The Cabinet Division issued a notification Friday evening. As a mark of Bangladesh's deepest respect for Abe, the national flag will be kept at half-mast at all government, semi-government and autonomous institutions, and missions abroad. Special prayers will be offered Saturday for the eternal peace of the departed soul. Also read: Assassination of Japan’s Shinzo Abe stuns world leaders Abe, 67, died today after being shot while delivering a campaign speech in southern Japan. He immediately collapsed and was seen bleeding before being taken to hospital. The attack on Abe, the man who remained Japan's longest-serving prime minister, shocked the entire world.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that Japan will form a space defense unit to protect itself from potential threats as rivals develop missiles and other technology and the new unit will work closely with its American counterpart recently launched by President Donald Trump.