TOKYO—Japan voted Sunday in a parliamentary election that politicians on all sides mentioned would display the nation’s dedication to democracy after the killing two days earlier of former Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe.
The election, which can fill half the seats in Parliament’s higher home, isn’t anticipated to alter the make-up of the present authorities, led by Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida
of the Liberal Democratic Party in coalition with a smaller occasion. The LDP has dominated with little problem because it returned to energy in 2012 beneath Mr. Abe’s management.
The assassination of Mr. Abe on Friday jolted what had been a low-drama marketing campaign. Authorities arrested a 41-year-old man, Tetsuya Yamagami, and mentioned he was suspected of sneaking up behind Mr. Abe and firing a do-it-yourself gun at him. Mr. Yamagami informed investigators he had issues with a company that he believed was linked to the previous prime minister and that led him to resolve to kill Mr. Abe, police mentioned.
Police didn’t publicly identify the group or describe why the suspect linked it to Mr. Abe. Japanese information organizations together with the Asahi newspaper mentioned it was a spiritual group and mentioned Mr. Yamagami informed authorities he was upset as a result of he believed his mom had suffered monetary difficulties whereas giving massive donations to the group.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been on an Asia journey, will go to Tokyo to supply condolences over Mr. Abe’s loss of life, the State Department mentioned. It mentioned Mr. Blinken’s journey would wrap up Monday.
Leaders of each the ruling and opposition camps mentioned they didn’t need the killing of Mr. Abe to alter Japan’s political tradition.
Renho, a former opposition chief and present upper-house member who’s working for re-election Sunday, mentioned the flexibility of lawmakers on all sides to talk freely was the muse of constructing the nation higher.
“We cannot allow pressure or violence to deprive politicians of their words—or of their lives,” mentioned Renho, who goes by one identify.
Prime Minister Kishida, who beforehand served as Mr. Abe’s international minister, spent Saturday a lot as he would any day earlier than an election, hopping by prepare and airplane to marketing campaign in tight districts.
“We must show that our democracy, our elections, will not be defeated by violence,” Mr. Kishida mentioned in his last pre-election speech on behalf of an LDP candidate in Niigata prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast.
“Some people said that because of what happened, I ought to cancel my speech here in public asking for your vote,” he mentioned. “But as Japan’s prime minister, I believe it is my responsibility to carry through a free, fair and safe election to protect democracy.”
Vigorous retail campaigning has been a central a part of Japanese politics because it adopted common suffrage and enshrined parliamentary authorities in its U.S.-written structure, adopted in 1947.
In the weeks earlier than elections, candidates crisscross their districts giving speeches at prepare stations and buying areas, usually with little or no safety. Television promoting performs much less of a task than within the U.S. due to guidelines limiting the kind of adverts candidates can run.
Party heavyweights historically journey across the nation to talk on behalf of their occasion’s candidates. When he was shot on Friday, Mr. Abe was within the metropolis of Nara to assist a candidate who’s a member of the highly effective LDP faction Mr. Abe led.
The LDP maintained its majority within the decrease home of Japan’s Parliament, the extra highly effective of the physique’s two chambers, in a common election final October. Sunday’s election includes solely the higher home, with 125 of its 248 seats at stake. The LDP-led coalition controls a majority in that chamber and is predicted to retain it, in keeping with polls.
Write to Peter Landers at [email protected]
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