The Diplomat
The Spanish government yesterday “firmly” condemned the “terrible” assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while Japan’s ambassador in Madrid, Kenji Hiramatsu, thanked “the kind messages of condolences and solidarity” received in Spain.
Shinzo Abe, 67, died after being shot while giving a speech at an election rally in the city of Nara, in western Japan. A suspect has been arrested for the moment, a 41-year-old man who confessed that he had killed Abe because he believed that the former prime minister had relations with a group he “hated”, according to police sources, without further details.
Abe, who led the country for almost eight years – a record in post-war Japan – visited Spain twice, on May 4, 2014, when he was received by the then Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy (who acted as his cicerone in Santiago de Compostela), and on October 16, 2018, to attend a Bilateral Summit in Madrid with the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez (with whom he signed a joint declaration raising the framework of the bilateral relationship to “strategic partnership”). Apart from that, Sánchez held a bilateral meeting with Abe at the end of June 2019, in the margins of the G20 Summit in Osaka (Japan). In August 2020, the chief executive expressed his wish for a speedy recovery to Shinzo Abe, who had just announced his resignation due to health problems.
In a message on Twitter, Pedro Sánchez declared, “on behalf of the Government of Spain”, his “condolences to Shinzo Abe’s family and to the Japanese people, with whom Spanish society shares very special ties”. It also expressed its “firm condemnation of the terrible attack that has taken the life of the former Prime Minister of Japan”.
For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement in which it “deeply regrets” the death of Shinzo Abe. “Today is a sad day for Japan and for Spain,” it continued. “During his term as prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe contributed to closer bilateral relations between the two countries, commemorating the 150th anniversary (of diplomatic relations) with an official visit to our country in the framework of which a Strategic Partnership was signed,” it added, referring to Abe’s visit to Spain in October 2018. “The Ministry joins the grief of the family and the Japanese people, and conveys its deepest condolences for such a terrible loss,” it added.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, took advantage of his meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasha Hayashi, in Bali – where both attended the G20 Summit – to reiterate his “firm condemnation” for the assassination of Shinzo Abe and his condolences and solidarity “with the Japanese people.”
For its part, the Spain-Japan Council Foundation expressed, “on behalf of the Government of Spain,” its “condolences to the family of Shinzo Abe and to the Japanese people, with whom Spanish society shares very special ties.” “Our firm condemnation of the terrible attack that has taken the life of the former prime minister of Japan,” it added.
In response to all these expressions of support, Japan’s ambassador to Spain, Kenji Hiramatsu, said he was “very grateful for the kind messages of condolences and sympathy for the sad passing of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a result of the unforgivable attack.” “I greatly appreciate the support at this very hard time,” he added, via the embassy’s Twitter account.
