Although “there are many details that we do not yet know,” Biden acknowledged, “we know that violent attacks are never acceptable and that gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it. The United States stands with Japan in this moment of grief. I send my deepest condolences to his family.”

In her own statement, Vice President Kamala Harris said Abe was a “close friend” of the United States, “and on this tragic day, we stand with our Japanese friends in honoring him and condemning this horrific act of violence.”

Abe’s two stints as prime minister — from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020 — spanned three U.S. presidencies. As leader of the conservative, governing Liberal Democratic Party, he sought to foster relationships with foreign counterparts and expanded Japan’s international engagement, all while pursuing a fiscal agenda known as “Abenomics” that grew his country’s economy.

Abe’s death on Friday at the age of 67 came ahead of an election this weekend for the upper house of the National Diet, Japan’s parliament. He was speaking on behalf of a Liberal Democratic Party candidate when he was shot from behind and collapsed. Abe was then airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara. Medical officials said he was wounded in the neck and the heart, and that he died of blood loss.

A male suspect was detained at the scene, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK, and police sources said they found a seemingly handmade gun. The attack was notable given Japan’s gun control laws, which are some of the strictest in the world.

Speaking at the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Abe’s assassination a “shocking” and “profoundly disturbing” event that represented “such a strong personal loss for so many people.”

Blinken, appearing alongside South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, said he had conveyed to his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi the United States’ “very deep condolences” on Abe’s death. He described Abe as “an extraordinary partner” who “brought the relationship between … the United States and Japan to new heights.”

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel hailed Abe as “a leader ahead of his time,” saying in a statement that the United States “has lost a trusted partner and an outspoken advocate for our shared ideals.” He added of Abe: “The clarity of his voice will be truly missed.”

Former President Donald Trump also mourned the assassination of Abe, who was the first foreign leader to meet the then-president-elect at Trump Tower in New York in November 2016. Abe’s death is “Really BAD NEWS FOR THE WORLD!” Trump posted on his Truth Social social media platform.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who served as U.S. ambassador to Japan under Trump and is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the world had “tragically lost a leading statesman, tireless champion of democratic values, and the greatest Prime Minister in modern Japanese history.”

Referring to Abe as a “friend and longtime partner,” Obama said in a statement that he “will always remember the work we did to strengthen our alliance, the moving experience of traveling to Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor together, and the grace he and his wife Akie Abe showed to me and [former first lady Michelle Obama].”

Numerous other world leaders expressed similar sentiments. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg lamented the “heinous killing of … a defender of democracy,” and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Abe a “wonderful person, great democrat and champion of the multilateral world order.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Abe’s “global leadership through unchartered times will be remembered by many.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country would “stand closely by Japan’s side in these difficult hours” while French President Emmanuel Macron said Abe “dedicated his life to his country and worked to bring balance to the world.” And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of Abe’s assassination: “This heinous act of violence has no excuse.”

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