Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday spoke out against any violence that undermines democracy, after former U.S. President Donald Trump was targeted in a shooting at an election campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

"We must stand firm against any form of violence that challenges democracy," Kishida said on social media site X, as the incident rekindled memories in Japan of the fatal shooting of the country's former leader.

"I pray for former President Trump's speedy recovery," Kishida added.

Senior members of Japan's ruling and opposition parties also expressed their concerns about the incident, bearing in mind the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign speech in 2022.

Touching on Abe's assassination, Tomomi Inada, acting secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said she senses a rising trend of increased radicalism in protests and opposition toward politicians.

"There is a situation in which we cannot ensure the fairness of elections and the foundations of safety," the former defense minister said on a television program.

Hiroshi Ogushi, head of the election strategy committee of the leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, also called the Trump rally incident a "challenge to democracy that should never happen."

Leaders across the world offered messages of support for the former president and expressed their horror over the attack.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X that he was "appalled by the shocking scenes at President Trump's rally and we send him and his family our best wishes." He added that "political violence in any form has no place in our societies."

French President Emmanuel Macron said his country "shares the shock and indignation of the American people" and called the incident a "tragedy for our democracies."

Elsewhere in Asia, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Chinese President Xi Jinping "expressed sympathies" to Trump, and that the government is "following the shooting incident."

Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong wrote on social media, "We should never resort to violence regardless of any differences of views."

In South Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol wished Trump a speedy recovery. "The people of Korea stand in solidarity with the people of America," he wrote on X.

Trump, the 78-year-old Republican seeking to be reelected in November by defeating his Democrat rival President Joe Biden, was rushed off the stage Saturday at the rally in Pennsylvania after shots were fired from a rooftop. He later said on social media that he was shot in the upper right ear.

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