Photo/Illutration Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is helped off the stage by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reacted with outrage to the attempt on the life of Donald Trump in the United States where the former president was holding a rally.

“We must stand firm against any form of violence that challenges democracy,” Kishida wrote in English and Japanese on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “I pray for former President Trump’s speedy recovery.”

Trump was injured in the right ear after being shot while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. The suspected perpetrator was killed.

One audience member was killed in the gunfire, and two others were reportedly critically injured.

Hiroshi Ogushi, chairman of the Election Strategy Committee of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized the attack as “outrageous.”

“It is a challenge to democracy and must never be allowed to have occurred,” Ogushi told an NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) program early July 14.

The Lower House member noted that it is the job of politicians to come into contact with voters and exchange opinions during elections.

This, he said, calls for a balance between ensuring freedom for various people to express various opinions on one hand and protecting democratic values and never allowing terrorism on the other.

On the same TV program, Tomomi Inada, executive acting secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, noted the shock that swept Japan and the world with the shooting death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the campaign trail in July 2022.

“Even in Japan, which is considered safe, we must have a sense of tension in conducting election activities and engaging in freedom of expression,” the Lower House member said.

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