>> I was working at home, and my wife screamed and yelled, "Abe just got shot."

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Hello, and welcome to "GZERO World."

I'm Ian Bremmer, and on today's show, the world reels from news that a man with a homemade gun has assassinated Japan's former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, its longest-serving prime minister in history, and it happened in broad daylight.

Gun deaths in Japan aren't just rare, they're nearly unheard of.

According to Japan's National Police Agency, in all of 2021, just one person was killed by gun violence in Japan.

Compare that to the United States with 45,035 firearm deaths that same year.

Just days after Abe's murder, Japan's ruling party and its coalition made strong gains in a key parliamentary election, helped by an outpouring of sympathy for the late former prime minister.

What will be Abe's legacy, and what's in store for Japanese politics and for the country's geopolitical ambitions in the region?

I'm discussing all that and more with a man who knew Abe very well, former special adviser to the prime minister Tomohiko Taniguchi, who will join me from Tokyo.

Later, we turn our lens back to America, to look at how digital privacy has been impacted by the end of Roe vs. Wade.

But first, a word from the folks who help us keep the lights on.

>> Major corporate funding provided by founding sponsor First Republic.

At First Republic, our clients come first.

Taking the time to listen helps us provide customized banking and wealth-management solutions.

More on our clients at FirstRepublic.com.

Additional funding provided by... And by... ♪♪ >> In the wake of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's assassination, Japanese citizens have repeated a similar refrain -- "This is not who we are."

The phrase refers to just how rare gun violence is in Japan and just how tightly the government restricts gun access.

[ Gunshot ] But it also describes a collective revulsion in seeing political assassinations back in the national spotlight after over half a century peace.

On November 4, 1921, Prime Minister Takashi Hara was walking at Tokyo Station to catch a train to Kyoto when a railroad switchman harboring right-wing sentiment stabbed him to death.

And at the very same train station, nine years later, nearly to the day, a member of an ultranationalist secret society shot Premier Yuko Hamaguchi.

He died of his wounds months later.

And in a 1932 attempted coup d'etat, a group of young, far-right Navy cadets stormed Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai's residence, shot him dead.

His last words were reportedly, "If we could talk, you would understand," to which the young officers replied, "Dialogue is useless."

The cadets' original assassination plan had also included murdering an English film star named Charlie Chaplin -- yes, that Charlie Chaplin -- who was visiting the Japanese prime minister.

The plotters were hoping to provoke a U.S.-Japan war, but they were thwarted because they were unable to locate Chaplin.

He was watching a sumo wrestling match with the Prime Minister's son at the time.

Shinzo Abe's own grandfather, Prime Minister Nobosuke Kishi, was stabbed in the thigh and severely injured during a political event in 1960.

Later that same year, during a televised political debate, a 17-year-old ultranationalist stormed the stage and stabbed socialist politician Inejiro Asanuma to death.

A photograph of the stabbing later went on to win the 1961 Pulitzer Prize.

While incidences of political violence have occurred on a smaller scale in Japan since then, Asanuma's 1960 murder was the country's last high-profile political assassination until Prime Minister Abe's death earlier this month.

After 62 years of peace, many citizens believed this horrific tradition was a relic of the early 20th century.

We've yet to fully grasp how Abe's assassination will reshape Japanese politics, but in a key parliamentary election held last Sunday, his ruling party made sizable gains, a success that was surely propelled by an outpouring of sympathy for Abe.

The victory will extend Abe's legacy and could even allow his supporters to achieve some of the political goals that eluded him during his time in office.

Today, I'm discussing Japan's uncertain road ahead and what it could mean geopolitically for the Asia-Pacific region, in general, and China, in particular, with a former advisor and a very close friend to Shinzo Abe.

Tomohiko Taniguchi.

He now joins me from Tokyo.

Tomohiko Taniguchi, thank you so much for joining us again on "GZERO," and please accept my condolences for the horrible events.

>> Thank you.

It's been a painful couple of days.

>> You, of course, were very close to Prime Minister Abe before, during, after his two separate stints in office.

I cannot imagine what was going through your mind personally when you heard the news.

Tell me where you were on the day and how you learned, and walk me through it a little bit.

>> I was working at home, and my wife screamed and yelled, and said, "Abe just got shot."

Of course, I could not believe -- who could believe such a thing?

And then came a news -- piece of news that no vital sign could be detected.

So I prayed and prayed and prayed.

I think the nation also did the same.

Until, finally, 5:03 p.m., Japan time, we heard that Prime Minister Abe had just passed away.

I was filled with... a lot of different emotions all at the same time.

Disbelief, grief.

The strongest emotion, of course, was anger -- anger against the suspect who is in custody.

The next day, Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie, with her husband's body, came back to Tokyo's residence, and I was there.

And the former first lady, Akie, appeared apparently devastated.

I don't think she was able to shed any more a drop of tears.

And this evening, Tokyo time, they had the first farewell ceremony.

Well, it's called spending night with the deceased.

And it drew a huge, huge number of people.

And when -- where Prime Minister Abe was shot, there's always a very, very long line of people who wish to leave flowers.

>> I mean, this is, you know, so alien to Japanese society.

You've had entire years where there's been no deadly gun violence, the entire nation.

and then suddenly, the most important, the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, gunned down and killed.

I mean, it's -- it's like it's another planet, all of a sudden.

I'm wondering how you think the nation can process this, right?

In the United States, it's "thoughts and prayers," it's outrage, you move on to the next cycle.

In Japan, it couldn't be farther from that.

So I'd like you to share your thoughts on that issue.

>> Ian, it's too early for me to actually chew and digest what happened.

But at the same time, I don't think this is a tip of any iceberg because it's such an isolated incident.

The suspect is such an isolated individual who had very few friends himself.

And he was monomaniac on a lot of things, one of which was to manufacture homemade guns.

Who could prevent such an individual from resorting to unspeakable acts like that?

Certainly, the police may deserve accusations because not many members of the police, it looks, were looking behind the prime minister.

So one of them or two of them should have taken a close look at what was going on behind the scene, behind Prime Minister Abe speaking.

But, yes, as you say, it's almost like a parallel world.

And if, in another parallel world, Shinzo Abe was alive, I would very much like to fly over there.

You know, that's the sort of feeling.

>> Well, let's -- let's talk a little bit about his legacy, because from the United States, we talk about the Quad.

We see all of this new architecture, both engaging with the United States as well as bringing democracies in Asia together.

Talk to us about his legacy.

How is Japan and how is the world different because of his premiership?

>> Many in the United States and other parts of the world associate Japan with entrepreneurship exhibited by such individuals as founders of Sony and Honda.

But those were the days that happened 40, 50 years ago.

Over the last 20-plus years, until Shinzo Abe came back, you know, there had been almost near zero growth.

People in the age bracket of 30 to 55, if you like, went through absolutely no growth.

And in the meantime, there has been a very much reduced sense of, let's say, self-efficacy and self-esteem, the sense that if you work hard, you could do that.

The fantasy of a Little Engine that Could no longer held in Japan.

Shinzo Abe wanted to change that because unless and until you could have younger generations to be more forthcoming, it's useless -- isn't it?

-- for the nation to talk anything about building an arsenal, beefing up defense arrangements.

So the first and the second and third-most important thing for Shinzo Abe was always to bolster the morale, the collective morale, of the young people.

And there is no silver bullet, panacea for any government to do such a thing.

So he had to try a lot of things.

He had to pull a lot of strings.

And in the meantime, people would feel, naturally, very much uneasy if the geographic setting around Japan remains very much shaky and unpredictable.

So in order for people in Japan, especially the young people, to be feeling assured, feeling safer, about where where they live, Shinzo Abe had to travel abroad to forge better alliances and robust alliances, certainly with the United States and, in addition to that, with countries such as Australia and India, which is why Shinzo Abe sometimes is called a real architect of the Quad, bringing in India and Australia to the U.S.-Japan alliance relationship.

So that's the positive side of the legacy.

But he did not accomplish a lot of things, too.

>> The Constitution was not changed, something he really wanted to have happen.

>> Right.

What I was trying to say, Ian, was the rapprochement between Russia and Japan.

Well, it's -- it's impossible now for any country to talk anything about that.

But Shinzo Abe wished to finally have the peace treaty with Russia, aiming that, by so doing, Japan could lessen the military tension that might be -- that is actually coming from the north, that is to say, from Russia.

Because Japan, unlike any other advanced nations, is encircled by three undemocratic, militarist, authoritarian nuclear regimes of Russia, North Korea, China.

So Shinzo Abe wanted to decrease the tension, at least from Russia, to little avail.

Now, for the first time ever in Japanese modern history, the country is faced with three different military threats from Russia, North Korea, China.

But luckily, because of the legislative attempts that Shinzo Abe used so much capital to carry out, now it is possible for Japan's armed forces to work more closely with U.S. forces.

So the joint collaborative deterrence capacity between the United States and Japan has become much, much more substantial.

And I think that message has been well-received by Beijing, Xi Jinping and his colleagues.

>> Now, Prime Minister Kishida has said that he wants to continue the legacy that Prime Minister Abe has left.

Do you think that that directly includes the constitutional issue and, in a sense, normalizing the role of the Japanese military, the way, for example, that Olaf Scholz, the new chancellor of Germany, has begun?

>> That's my wish.

That's in my wish list.

Kishida is now with a golden opportunity, because over the next three years, Japan is going to have no major general national election.

It's rare, and I would very much like to see Mr. Kishida growing up as a statesman to tackle some of those root, deep-rooted, difficult issues.

Changing constitutions is difficult, but it's not the only difficult issue.

As I said, Japan's economy must be put on a growth trajectory more firmly, and in order for that to be made possible, I think what's important is to rewrite Japan's social contract, by which it means that pulling some resources out of those given to the elderly and putting them more to the younger generations.

That's easy to be said but difficult to be done.

Who else could do anything like that without -- if Mr. Kishida couldn't do that?

So I'm hoping Mr. Kishida could do that sort of things.

Constitutional reform is very much important.

However, as Prime Minister -- former Prime Minister Abe worked hard to strengthen Japanese armed forces so that they could work under peacetime more firmly with the United States forces, the necessity, the ultimate necessity of changing the Article 9 -- the famous Article 9 -- is not so much urgent as it was five, six years ago.

However, the conventional interpretation of the Constitution, believe it or not, still holds that the presence of Japanese armed forces is substantially unconstitutional.

So that must be changed.

And I'm saying that Prime Minister Kishida, because he is now endowed with much more substantial political capital, should tackle these issues head on.

>> Before we close, I mean, it's so hard to ask this question because you and the nation are still very much experiencing a trauma.

But I'm wondering, with an event of this scale inside Japan, do you think the Japanese society will change in any way?

What's the effect of Abe's untimely assassination death on Japan going forward?

>> When Japan was down, the just outpouring of sympathies and empathies from abroad helped a lot.

If you recall, Japan underwent the triple disasters of tsunami, nuclear meltdown, and earthquake 11 years ago.

That was the time when people from all over the world came out and said, "Carry on," to the Japanese.

And that's exactly the same that's going on now each and every day since Friday.

Last week, we woke up, people in Japan woke up looking at the outpouring of sympathy.

You know, the Israeli -- in Israel, a bridge that connects Jerusalem and the outer community had a Japanese flag as a sign of showing sympathy.

My hope for the future, Ian, is that Japan will change for the better, because Shinzo Abe worked hard to be an accidental, in my own term, cheerleader-in-chief who always encouraged women to break glass ceilings and encouraged twenty-something and high teens to be more ambitious.

So that's the positive legacy I would very much like to see taking root among Japanese young people.

And if that's going to happen, really, Japan is going to be a different place in a better sense of the word.

>> Taniguchi-san, I look forward to seeing you personally in better times, and I thank you for joining us today.

>> Thank you.

Thank you very much for having me.

♪♪ >> And now turning to the United States, where the end of Roe vs. Wade has many women worried about who can access their personal health data on the Internet.

"GZERO World's" Sarah Kneezle has the story.

♪♪ >> Femtech.

You might not have heard of it, but for millions of women, it has been a game changer.

New apps help keep track of menstrual cycles, ovulation, pregnancy status, and other deeply personal health details in ways a traditional calendar simply cannot.

>> My choice!

>> My body!

>> But after the Dobbs decision, many are now worried that health data from these apps could soon be used against them.

>> Women, if you haven't deleted your period-tracking apps, what are you doing?

>> This concern has prompted companies to develop new features, like anonymous mode, and to promise never to sell user data to third parties.

This comes despite some companies having a past history of doing so.

>> Use an app like Euki App, which has better privacy.

Euki, an app created by two nonprofit groups, goes several steps further to protect its users' data.

>> There is no back end to the app, so there's no data collected in the cloud.

All of the information users put into the app remains only on their device.

>> Euki users can also enter a secret code to immediately delete or hide sensitive information.

>> We know, even before the Dobbs decision, that people were criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes, and in at least a couple of those recent cases, information from their devices was used as part of those prosecutions.

>> Downloads on the Apple App Store for Euki are up 2,700% since the Supreme Court's decision was leaked in May.

Now that the ruling is official, many experts say that digital privacy concerns reach far beyond period trackers.

>> People wear smartwatches and other fitness trackers, which can tell when somebody is changing their exercise or physical-exertion patterns.

We have location data on our phone through different apps.

We create medical appointments and talk to doctors through our phones.

All of that data is out there.

>> President Joe Biden says this data may actually be dangerous for women seeking an abortion.

>> There's an increasing concern that extremist governors and others will try to get that data off of your phone, which is out there in the ether, to find what you're seeking, where you're going, and what you're doing with regard to your healthcare.

>> The administration has also issued guidance to consumers on digital security but so far has not expanded privacy protections to apply to health data collected by apps.

>> The data ecosystem is so complicated and so complex that asking a normal individual to fully understand not only what data they are directly putting into an app or a third party but all of the indirect information that's flowing into it and what it says about them is nearly impossible.

>> Concerns over digital privacy will likely continue as legal battles rage on in a post-Roe America.

For "GZERO World," I'm Sarah Kneezle.

>> My body!

>> Whose choice?!

>> My choice!

♪♪ >> That's our show this week.

Come back next week, and if you like what you see and want another crazy week, and, my God, there's just far too many of them these days, why don't you check us out gzeromedia.com?

>> Major corporate funding provided by founding sponsor First Republic.

At First Republic, our clients come first.

Taking the time to listen helps us provide customized banking and wealth-management solutions.

More on our clients at FirstRepublic.com.

Additional funding provided by... And by...