[x]

I came here to make a Lincoln reference, but now that I'm here ... Abe wasn't in power anymore, so his assassination wasn't of JFK importance. Plus Kennedy had the whole charisma thing going. Abe may have been a more consequential figure in real terms, but he didn't have the glamour and the mystique.

Abe's assassination must have been a shock for the Japanese. Was it as much of a shock for them as the Olaf Palme assassination was for the Swedes or the Utøya Island mass murder was for the Norwegians?

Somehow I don't think so. Sweden, Norway, and Japan pride themselves on being peaceful, close-knit countries, but I suspect the Japanese are more realistic and suspicious about what people are really capable of even in peaceful, close-knit countries.

[Reily]

Government by assasination was common in post-Mejii Restoration Japan (1868) up to almost WWII.

I am sure Japanese LE have that history in the back of their minds.