“There were assassinations in Japan in the run-up to WWII if I recall correctly.”
Probably. This assassination was in 1960 and prevented a Communist from taking power in Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Inejir%C5%8D_Asanuma
Yeah, the Japanese militarists bumped off a lot of Japanese democratic leaders in the run-up to WWII. That’s how they got control, they kept their democratic (small d) political leaders terrified, or dead.