With the flags at half-mast, Japan mourned the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with his body moved to Tokyo’s Zojoji Temple for an evening to be held Monday evening.
A private funeral is scheduled for Tuesday for the oldest Japanese prime minister, who resigned in 2020.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday for a brief stopover to offer condolences on behalf of President Joe Biden.
“I shared with our Japanese colleagues the feeling of loss, the feeling of shock we all feel (connected people feel) in the face of this horrible tragedy,” Blinken said.
“But most of all, I came at the request of the president because more than allies we are friends. And when a friend hurts, other friends show up.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is preparing to speak to the media before boarding his plane Monday at Yokota Air Base in Fussa, on the outskirts of Tokyo. Blinken made an earlier unscheduled stop to offer his personal condolences for the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Stefani Reynolds / The Associated Press)
Triumph of elections
In Sunday’s election, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and his ruling coalition partner extended their majority in parliament’s upper house. The results give Kishida the opportunity to consolidate his power after taking over from Yoshihide Suga, who only lasted one year in office as Abe’s successor.
With a majority already in the lower house, what would have been an atmosphere of celebration at the LDP headquarters under normal circumstances became bleak. A moment of silence was offered for Abe in his memory, and Kishida’s face remained sad as he fixed rosettes next to the names of the winning candidates on a board in symbol of his victory.
The LDP and its junior partner Komeito won 76 of the 125 seats contested in the chamber, up from the previous 69. Only the LDP won 63 seats, compared to 55, to win most of the contested seats, although it did not get the simple majority.
With no elections scheduled for another three years, Kishida has gained unusually wide breathing space to try to implement an ambitious agenda that includes expanding spending on defense and revising Japan’s pacifist constitution, a dream of Abe’s since long before ill health caused his resignation.
Kishida said at a press conference that he would address difficult issues that Abe was unable to resolve, such as the revision of the constitution, and added that he hoped there would be discussions on the issue during the next session of parliament.
“We have gained strength from the voters for a stable government of this nation,” Kishida said.
The hearse carrying the body of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrives at the Zojoji Temple on Monday for waking up. (Hiro Komae / The Associated Press)
Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old unemployed man, is accused by police of approaching Abe and opening fire during a campaign speech in the western Japanese city of Nara on Friday. The attack, captured on video, shocked a nation where armed violence is rare.
The suspect’s mother was a member of the Unification Church, but Yamagami himself was not a member, said Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese branch of the Federation of Families for World Peace and Unification, known as the Church of Unification.
Yamagami believed Abe had promoted a religious group to which his mother made a “large donation,” the Kyodo news agency said, citing sources in the investigation. Yamagami told police his mother went bankrupt because of the donation, Yomiuri newspaper and other media reported.
Reuters could not immediately contact Yamagami’s mother and could not determine if she belonged to any other religious organization.