TOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) – Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was hospitalized on Friday after he was shot from behind by what appeared to be a man armed with a rifle while delivering a speech in the city of Nara , in the west of the country, announced the public channel NHK. .

Abe, 67, appeared to be in cardiac arrest, the network and Kyodo News Agency reported. Gunshots were heard and a puff of white smoke was seen as Abe gave a campaign speech outside a train station, NHK said.

An NHK reporter at the scene said he heard two consecutive bangs during Abe’s speech.

The Chief Cabinet Secretary will brief the media at 04:00 GMT.

Abe served two terms as prime minister to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister before stepping down in 2020 due to ill health.

But he remained a dominant presence on the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), controlling one of its main factions.

His protege, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, faces an Upper House election on Sunday in which analysts say he hopes to emerge from Abe’s shadow and define his post as prime minister.

Abe is best known for his signature “Abenomics” policy, which featured bold monetary easing and fiscal spending.

It also bolstered defense spending after years of decline and expanded the military’s ability to project power overseas.

In a historic change in 2014, his government reinterpreted the pacifist post-war constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War II.

The following year, a law ended the ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense or defending a friendly country under attack.

Abe, however, fell short of his long-standing goal of overhauling the US-drafted constitution by enshrining the Self-Defense Forces, as the Japanese military calls it, in pacifist Article 9.

He was instrumental in winning the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo, cherishing the wish to preside over the Games, which were postponed for a year to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abe first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War II. After a year plagued by political scandals, voter outrage over the loss of pension records and a humiliating election for his ruling party, Abe resigned citing poor health.

He became prime minister again in 2012.

Abe comes from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a great-uncle who served as prime minister.

Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Written by Robert Birsel; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and William Mallard

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