Shinzo Abe’s get together gained election in Japan days after his assassination: NHK

While the higher home is the much less highly effective of the 2 chambers of the Japanese parliament, the victory strengthens Kishida’s political base, and will presumably assist transfer ahead on key coverage points, together with revising Japan’s pacifist structure – a trigger that Abe throughout its almost 9 years in energy and one that may require a two-thirds majority of each homes of parliament, adopted by a preferred referendum.

Hours after voting closed on Sunday, Kishida informed NHK: “The election is at stake due to violence however we’ve to get it performed. Now that we have got it performed, it is fairly worthwhile – going ahead, we’ve to Have to proceed work exhausting to guard democracy.”

suspect behind murder

The election results come as the investigation continues into Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, the suspect behind the murder of Abe, who was arrested on the spot after the shooting.

Police say he is suspected of murder but has not been formally charged.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and the Kyodo News Agency, citing police, said that Yamagami said he held a complaint against a certain group he believed Abe had ties to, and to which His mother was involved.

Nara police said on Monday that Yamagami conducted a test shooting in the early hours of Thursday morning against a building of “a sure group” in Nara Prefecture, using a house gun he later killed.

Investigators said a vehicle believed to be Yamagami’s car was seen on security cameras where Thursday’s test shooting took place. Police declined to name the group, and security footage has not been made public.

CNN could not independently confirm which group the suspect was referring to.

Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the church’s Japan office, said in a statement Monday that the suspect’s mother was a member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church.

The statement said the suspect was never a member of the church, while his mother has been a member, attending church events once a month. Tanaka said the organization would cooperate with investigators if asked to do so.

Yamagami told police he watched YouTube videos to help make his weapons, NHK reported Monday, citing investigators. According to NHK, he had practiced shooting weapons in the mountains a few days before the murder, and police found wooden boards in the suspect’s vehicle with bullet holes in it.

Photos from the scene Friday showed what appeared to be a weapon with two cylindrical metal barrels wrapped in black tape.

Yamagami also told investigators that he initially intended to kill Abe by using explosives at an event in Okayama Prefecture, a three-hour drive from Nara – but changed his plan due to potential difficulties entering the event. Gave.

As a national leader, Abe was associated with many groups, organizations and causes, as is common in any democracy. It is not clear if Abe was linked to any of the groups the suspect was talking about.

Asked whether the suspect was acting alone or with someone else, the police said they were investigating all possibilities.

country in mourning

The shooting has shocked Japan, long considered one of the safest countries in the world.

a personal awakening Tokyo o. was held inn Monday and Tuesday a funeral, according to Abe’s office. The office said they would hold a ceremony to mourn him, although a time and place had not yet been decided.

The office has set up an altar for the public to plant flowers at its office in Yamaguchi, and will add a place for incense tomorrow, it said.

In the days following Abe’s death, mourners gathered in Nara and laid flowers at a makeshift memorial where he was shot.

Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, holding office from 2006 to 2007, then from 2012 to 2020, when he stepped down citing health reasons. But even after his resignation, Abe remained an influential figure in the country’s political scene and continued to campaign for the LDP.

Tobias Harris, Senior Fellow for Asia at the Center for American Progress, said, “He was such an amazing determine in Japanese politics for therefore lengthy… I believe everybody anticipated him to proceed to wield super energy within the years to come back. ”

“So the reality is that he is not using that power, that he is gone and has left a power void within the LDP… a huge shock, even on a large scale. But also from the fact of his death to the public.”

Messages of condolence and remembrance have poured in from world leaders previous and current, lots of whom have labored with Abe – a extremely influential determine all through the Asia-Pacific who outlined politics for a era – in energy. During his tenure in

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Tokyo on Monday and met with Kishida to supply condolences to the Japanese folks.

“I am here because the United States and Japan are more than allies; we are friends. And when one friend is hurt, another friend comes out,” Blinken informed reporters on Monday. He stated Abe was “a visionary who took relations with America to new heights.”

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and several other senior authorities officers additionally visited Japan’s de facto embassy in Taipei on Monday to pay tribute to Abe and categorical their “deepest condolences” to the Abe household. Taiwan can be waving flags at half-staff to mark Abe’s contribution to the island.