Shinzo Abe shot dead: Attacks on key figures from Japan in the past

One of Japan's most influential figures and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative, was killed on Friday after being fatally shot during an election campaign in western Japan's Nara city.

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According to Kyodo News, the 67-year-old leader was shot from behind minutes after he began his speech ahead of the weekend's Upper House elections in one of the world's safest nations with some of the strictest gun control laws.

Gun violence is sporadic in Japan, which has one of the strictest gun control measures in the world. Abe, believed to have been killed by a self-modified gun, was provided with the highest protection. Here is the list of several gun attacks on key figures, including politicians, in Japan in the past:

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In 1990, then-Nagasaki City Mayor Motoshima Hitoshi was seriously injured after being shot by a right-winger.

In 1992, a right-wing gunman fired shots at the Liberal Democratic Party's then-Vice President Kanemaru Shin during a speech in Tochigi Prefecture of the country. Kanemaru was, however, uninjured.

In 1994, former Prime Minister Hosokawa Morihiro was shot at by a former right-wing group member in a Tokyo hotel. Hosokawa escaped unharmed in the incident.

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The National Police Agency's then-Commissioner General Kunimatsu Takaji was shot and seriously injured in front of his residence in Tokyo in 1995.

Another Nagasaki mayor, Iccho Itoh, was gunned down by Tetsuya Shiroo, a member of the yakuza, on 17 April 2007 and died.

(With inputs from PTI)