Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe hospitalized after shooting

TOKYO, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 29: Japanese outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks before former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida takes to the stage following his win in the Liberal democrat Party leadership election on September 29, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's replacement will be Japan's third leader during the coronavirus pandemic and is likely to be heavily focussed on getting the country's economy back on track. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in a statement Friday that the shooting of Shinzo Abe “cannot be forgiven.”

“First and foremost, I pray for the recovery of former Prime Minister Abe,” said Suga, who served from 2020 to 2021, in between Abe’s resignation and the election of current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

He added that the shooting was an act of “barbarity … that denies the basis of democracy, which is the election campaign, and cannot be forgiven by any means.”

Some context: Abe had been in the city of Nara delivering a speech in support of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidates, ahead of upcoming Upper House elections, when the shooting happened.