Shinzo Abe's body arrives in Tokyo as Japan mourns ex-prime minister's death

Shinzo Abe will also be honoured with a state ceremony, as Debi Edward reports

The body of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe was returned to Tokyo on Saturday after he was fatally shot during a campaign speech in western Japan a day earlier.

Mr Abe was attacked in the city of Nara and airlifted to hospital but died of blood loss despite emergency treatment, including massive blood transfusions.

Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan's navy, at the scene on suspicion of murder.

Officers confiscated the homemade gun he used and several others were later found at his apartment.

The attacker told investigators he plotted the shooting because he believed rumours that Mr Abe was connected to an organisation that he resents, according to police.

Japanese media reported that the man had developed hatred toward a religious group his mother was devoted to. The reports did not specify the group.

Tributes have been paid to the former Japanese PM, Shinzo Abe, who died after he was shot during a campaign speech, as Asia Correspondent Debi Edward reports

A black hearse carrying Mr Abe's body and accompanied by his wife, Akie, arrived at his home in Tokyo's upscale residential area of Shibuya, where many mourners waited and lowered their heads as the vehicle passed.

His assassination ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election shocked the nation and raised questions over whether security for the former prime minister was adequate.

Police on Saturday said autopsy results showed that a bullet that entered Abe's upper left arm damaged arteries beneath both collar bones, causing massive bleeding.

Some observers who watched videos of the assassination on social media and television noted a lack of attention in the open space behind Mr Abe as he spoke.

A former Kyoto prefectural police investigator, Fumikazu Higuchi, said the footage suggested security was sparse at the event and insufficient for a former prime minister.

“It is necessary to investigate why security allowed Yamagami [the suspect who admitted to the killing] to freely move and go behind Mr Abe,” Higuchi told a Nippon TV talk show.

Mr Abe was fighting for his life as he was airlifted to hospital earlier on Friday

Experts also said Mr Abe was more vulnerable standing on the ground level, instead of atop a campaign vehicle, which reportedly could not be arranged because his visit to Nara was hastily planned the day before.

In videos circulating on social media, the attacker, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, can be seen with the homemade gun hanging from his shoulder, standing only a few metres behind Mr Abe across a busy street, and continuously glancing around.

A few minutes after Mr Abe stood at the podium and started his speech – as a local party candidate and their supporters stood and waved to the crowd – Yamagami can be seen firing the first shot, which issued a cloud of smoke, but the projectile apparently missed Abe.

As Mr Abe turned to see where the noise came from, a second shot went off.

That shot apparently hit Abe's left arm, missing a bulletproof briefcase raised by a security guard who stood behind the former leader.

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Mr Abe fell to the ground, with his left arm tucked in as if to cover his chest.

Campaign organisers shouted through loudspeakers asking for medical experts to provide first-aid to Mr Abe, whose heart and breathing had stopped by the time he was airlifted to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

According to the Asahi newspaper, Yamagami was a contract worker at a warehouse in Kyoto where he was a forklift operator and known as a quiet person who did not mingle with his colleagues.

A next-door neighbour at his apartment told Asahi he never met Yamagami, though he recalled hearing noises like a saw being used several times late at night over the past month.

Even though he was out of office, Mr Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, but his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many.