Sudden Change In Security Details Leads To Shinzo Abe Shooting, Japan Police Chief Resigns

Shinzo Abe. (Wikimedia Commons/Prime Minister's official residence homepage)

JAKARTA - The head of Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) announced his resignation from his current position, as a form of responsibility for the failure to protect former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, so that he was shot dead.

Commissioner General Itaru Nakamura said this when announcing the results of an investigation into the police's failure to protect him during a speech during a campaign rally in Nara City, last July.

"As we advance new security arrangements, of course we will do so with a new line of people," Nakamura said.

Furthermore, the agency also announced Nara Prefectural Police Chief Tomoaki Onizuka was sentenced on the same day to a 10 percent pay cut for three months, adding he had also submitted his resignation.

In announcing the results of its review of Abe's shooting case, the agency said the sudden change in the deployment of police officers just before the speech, created "space" in the unguarded rear area, allowing the assailant to fire two shots at close range.

It was explained that when Shinzo Abe gave a short speech, an officer was dispatched from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and several local police officers were in the vicinity. However, nothing could stop the assailant before he fired two shots at the former prime minister from behind, according to the agency.

Abe stood in a small area surrounded by a guardrail. Just before he started his speech, one of the prefectural police officers, who was standing outside the guardrail and watching Abe's back, went inside and turned to face the audience without notifying other officers or team leaders, who were not in a closed area, according to the agency.

The agency concluded the attack was "most likely preventable" if police had concretely identified the risk of an attack beforehand.

As part of efforts to increase VIP protection, the agency said it would form a new unit with the security bureau, while doubling the number of officers serving as VIP bodyguards in the Metropolitan Police Department.

Also to obtain a system that aims to be able to detect suspicious things, by utilizing artificial intelligence.

The NPA is also revising its rules for VIP protection, allowing it to be more involved in such activities, such as by screening previous protection plans created by local police.