NARA >> A flower bed was completed March 31 near the site where former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead in Nara city in 2022. Although the flowers were part of a previously planned project, they will now serve as a de facto memorial to the late politician.

Nara city had been redeveloping the area around Kintetsu Railway Co.’s Yamato-Saidaiji Station prior to the shooting, and placing flower beds on sidewalks along the road was part of the plan.

The actual site of the shooting has become a road as planned and was opened for traffic April 1.

Abe was shot July 8 while delivering a campaign speech in support of a Liberal Democratic Party candidate.

The city government considered erecting a monument or marker but abandoned the idea after residents commented, “I don’t want to be reminded of the shooting.”

For now, the flower bed will seemingly serve that purpose.

“I used to feel sad every time I passed by here,” said an area worker, 65, who walked by the site recently. “But with the flower bed, it lightens the atmosphere. … I hope this becomes a place where the story of the incident can be passed down to future generations.”