Ruling party secures win
Japan’s governing party and its coalition partner have scored a sweeping victory in an upper-house election held in the wake of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won 63 seats, or more than half of the 125 seats up for grabs in the election on July 10. LDP’s coalition partner Komeito won 13.
Their victory means political forces supportive of revising Japan’s pacifist constitution – a long-held ambition of Abe – retain a two-third majority in the 248-member upper chamber.
The Kyodo news agency says the pro-constitutional amendment camp, which in addition to the LDP-Komeito coalition includes the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People, now has 179 seats.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, pictured, says he will push ahead with plans to amend the constitution, which was imposed on Japan by the US after World War II.
The charter renounces “war as a sovereign right of the nation”. Abe had sought to amend that provision, pointing to what he called a “severe” security environment, including China’s growing influence and North Korea’s nuclear and missiles programme.
Kishida says the ruling coalition “will deepen parliamentary debate over the constitution further so a concrete amendment proposal can be compiled”, but he adds addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising prices will be his priorities.
The strong outcome of the election on July 10 will also allow Kishida to consolidate his authority in the fractious LDP and ensures him three more years as PM.
He called for party unity during his address at the LDP’s headquarters and praised Japan for holding the elections, two days after Abe’s death.
“The election, which is the foundation of democracy, was challenged by violence,” he says. “It was extremely meaningful we carried out the election.”
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and a dominant force in the LDP, was shot with a homemade gun on July 8 while he was delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.
Saying farewell
Huge crowds have lined the streets of Tokyo to pay their last respects to Abe. A hearse carried the 67-year-old’s body through the capital to a funeral hall for cremation on July 12. A private funeral had been held earlier at the Zojoji temple.
Across Tokyo, flags flew at half-mast. Outside the temple, a long line of mourners stretched over two blocks, many carrying bouquets.
The hearse travelled past the headquarters of Abe’s LDP before making its way to the prime minister’s residence where Kishida and other lawmakers received the motorcade. After that it passed parliament building, where Abe first entered as a lawmaker in 1993, before arriving at Kirigaya Funeral Hall.
Abe’s funeral was supposed to be a private affair, closed to all but family and friends. But Japan’s people decided otherwise. From early morning, they began lining up outside the giant Zojoji temple to lay flowers.
