Polls showed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which Abe leads until he steps down in 2020, had secured more than half of the 125 seats they contested in the 248-seat Upper House. The LDP and its smaller coalition partner, Komeito, were projected to win more than 63 seats, according to an exit poll by Kyodo news agency. Public broadcaster NHK said the parties would win between 69 and 83 seats. The coalition needed to secure 55 seats to retain its majority in the Upper House – the least powerful chamber in Japan’s parliament. The party expected to appear long before Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot by a gunman as he delivered a campaign speech in the western city of Nara on Friday morning. While the official result has yet to be announced, experts said the violent death of Abe, aged 67, could boost turnout and support for his party. Mourning at the entrance of the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. Photo: Toru Hanai/EPA Kei Sato, the LDP candidate Abe was running for when he was killed, said: “Former Prime Minister Abe, who came to support me, was shot in a terrorist attack in the middle of our election campaign. “But we continued our campaign with the belief that we should not give in to terrorism or fear it – we should overcome it. I hope to travel to Tokyo tomorrow to tell former Prime Minister Abe himself about this victory,” added Sato, who was tipped to win his seat. Japanese government officials urged people to vote to demonstrate the country’s refusal to be intimidated by violence, while newspaper articles slammed Abe’s assassination, which was carried out with an improvised shotgun, as an attack on democracy. “We must never allow violence to stifle speech during elections, which is the foundation of democracy,” the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said during a campaign speech on the eve of the election. The election period was dominated by rising prices, energy shortages and security threats, including the LDP’s plans to double defense spending to at least 2 percent of GDP in the face of a nuclear-armed North Korea and a more assertive China. The vote was seen as a referendum on Kishida’s first 10 months in office. control of the government, decided in the Lower House, was not at stake. The poll, however, was overshadowed by Abe’s death and growing questions about security arrangements and the motives of his alleged killer. Tetsuya Yamagami is escorted by police officers as he is taken to prosecutors in Nara. Photo: KYODO/Reuters The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, told police he originally intended to target the leader of a religious group to which his mother had made a “massive donation” that had driven her into bankruptcy. He reportedly admitted that he also wanted to kill Abe, whom he accused of having ties to the group. Japanese newspapers and broadcasters did not name the organization, but some Japanese media reports identified the group as the Unification Church, whose members are commonly derided as “Moonies.” NHK said Yamagami had spent months planning the attack, having started by making explosives before deciding to build “multiple” weapons using skills he had learned during three years in the naval self-defense force. Two days after Abe was gunned down in front of a train station while addressing a small crowd, there was disbelief over how Yamagami, a 41-year-old Nara resident, was able to move freely behind Abe and fire two shots at close range. before being wrestled to the ground by security officials. On Saturday, the head of the Nara prefectural police force admitted that security arrangements were flawed and promised a thorough investigation into the error. “I think it is undeniable that there were problems with the guarding and security measures for former Prime Minister Abe,” Tomoaki Onizuka told reporters. “In all the years since I became a police officer in 1995 … there is no greater remorse, no greater sorrow than this.” Police numbers were noticeably high when Kishida appeared at a campaign event in a city southwest of Tokyo on Saturday, with attendees passing through a metal-detecting scanner – an unusual security measure in Japan. The LDP’s victory paved the way for a “golden” three-year term in which Kishida, who has promised to build a “new capitalism”, will not have to face an election. Some analysts said a particularly strong showing could even prompt him to revise Japan’s “pacifist” constitution — a controversial measure that Abe, its most vocal champion, never realized because of a lack of public support. “In the coming months, the government will certainly seek to strengthen domestic security,” said James Brady, a Japan analyst at US-based consultancy Teneo. “By undermining the public’s general sense of security and order, the event could also add further impetus to those key Abe causes, such as strengthening defense and constitutional reform.” Miu Komuro, who voted for the LDP in a constituency in eastern Tokyo, said: “I wanted to vote for a party that is firmly in power.” But Yuko Takeuchi, 52, a nurse in Tokyo who voted for the Japanese Communist Party, said: “Of course, I am very sorry for his death, but this election must be separated from that.” Attention will soon turn to Abe’s funeral, which will be held for family and close colleagues only at Zojoji Shrine in central Tokyo on Tuesday after a vigil the night before. So far, no plans have been announced for a public memorial service. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will visit Japan on Monday to offer his condolences, the State Department said. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST “The alliance between Japan and the United States has been a cornerstone of our foreign policy for decades,” Blinken said Saturday after G20 talks in Bali. “Prime Minister Abe has really taken this partnership to new heights. The friendship between the Japanese and American people is also unshakable. So we stand with the people of Japan, with the Prime Minister’s family, in the wake of a really, really awful act of violence.”
