Shinzo Abe's body arrives in Tokyo as Japan mourns death of former Prime Minister

A black hearse carrying 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.

The body of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was returned to Tokyo on July 9 after he was fatally shot during a campaign speech in western Japan a day earlier.

Abe was attacked in the city of Nara and airlifted to a local 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. Police 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 rumors that 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.

A black hearse carrying 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.

Abe’s 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 fatal 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 Abe as he spoke.