The killing of the former prime minister shocked Japan, and the ensuing scandal has shaken the government, says Justin McCurry in Tokyo

On Friday 8 July, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, was campaigning for his party in the city of Nara. Out of the crowd emerged Tetsuya Yamagami, wearing a surgical mask and holding a weapon. He fired twice, shooting Abe dead.

The Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent, Justin McCurry, tells Michael Safi that the killing stunned Japan, where gun crime is rare. In the months since, Japanese politics has been reeling, not just from the killing of the country’s longest serving prime minister but from the reason behind it.