A Battle for Power: What Occurred the Day After the Shooting of Shinzo Abe
Akie enters her apartment in Tomigaya on July 9.‘The bullet hit my left chest and my neck.”
On the afternoon of July 9, on the third floor of a luxury apartment building in Tomigaya, Tokyo. Yasutoshi Nishimura, 59, former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, was speaking about the final days of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Diet members who had come to offer their condolences.
On the previous day, Abe had died an untimely death in Nara, Japan. At 1:30 p.m. on the following day, the 9th, his body arrived at his apartment in Tomigaya, where he had lived for many years. The second floor of the apartment was the room where former Prime Minister Abe and his wife Akie, 60, lived, and the third floor was the room of Abe’s mother, Yoko, 94. Yoko had been suffering from cancer and was briefly hospitalized at the University of Tokyo Hospital. The room had been remodeled for the purpose of fighting the disease, and the body of former Prime Minister Abe was laid to rest in that room.
Around 2:00 p.m., Prime Minister Fumio Kishida paid a visit to offer his condolences, and many people from the political world, including former Prime Ministers Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi, visited. On the 9th, condolences were limited to Diet members.
One of the mourners felt a sense of discomfort upon entering the room. This was because Mr. Nishimura was sitting in the corner where Mrs. Akie, her mother Yoko, and her brother Nobuo Kishi, 63, and other members of the bereaved family were seated. Former Education Minister Tadashi Shioya, 72, acting chairman of the Seiwa-kai (Abe Faction), was also with them, but he was seated a short distance away, not at the bereaved family table. A mourner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
“At the time of the incident, Mr. Nishimura was in his hometown in Hyogo and immediately headed for Nara Medical University Hospital. A white one-box car followed the hearse, and that was Mr. Nishimura’s car. As Secretary-General and with other senior officials unavailable due to the Upper House election, Mr. Nishimura took the role of presiding over the condolences. it was Mr. Nishimura’s intention that the condolences on the 9th were limited to Diet members, but visitors from the business world also came to pay their respects, and Mr. Kishi’s eldest son, Nobujiro, bowed repeatedly in front of his apartment.”
It was also the last day of the Upper House election, and Mr. Kōichi Hagiuda, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and Mr. Hirofumi Shimomura, former policy chief of the LDP, who is the chairman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Federation of the Abe faction, were away giving speeches in support of Mr. Kishida. A condolence caller continued.
“Mr. Nishimura, who was to explain former Prime Minister Abe’s final days, stood aside from the mild-mannered Mr. Shioya and acted as if he were a representative of the Abe faction. While Abe faction leaders were sweating over the election, there was a story that former Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Ryota Takeda, who respects the order of elders, raised his voice at the sight of Nishimura’s self-righteous behavior in place of his faction’s senior members.”
The Seiwa-kai, which has nearly 100 Diet members, was able to retain its chairman because of Mr. Abe’s centripetal force. After Mr. Abe’s death, there is no successor who is unanimous among the public.
“For the time being, it is likely that the five-member leadership team of Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, House of Councilors Secretary-General Hiroshige Seko, Mr. Hagiuda, Mr. Nishimura, and Mr. Shimomura will continue to lead the party without a successor. Mr. Shiotani is expected to be excluded due to his defeat in the election and his return to proportional representation. He was called ‘Gyu-chan’.”
“Hagiuda, who is known as ‘Gyu-chan’ and has the support of younger voters, seems to be one step ahead of the others, but this has led to the formation of a group leadership structure, as veterans and other candidates may oppose it and the situation may become untenable. Since the faction was held together by Chairman Abe’s centripetal force, confusion is inevitable,” said a mid-level Seiwa-kai member.
Although not an NHK historical drama, the Kamakura Shogunate introduced a council system with 13 influential feudal lords after the death of the charismatic Minamoto no Yoritomo, which led to a bloody power struggle. The battle between the “Abe-dono no fives” (Abe no fives) began.
Interview and text by： Daisuke Iwasaki Photo by： Shinji Hasuo
