TOKYO
\nFamily and friends of Japan\u2019s assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe paid their respects Monday at a wake in Tokyo as Washington\u2019s top diplomat hailed the ex-premier as a \u201cman of vision.\u201d
\nJapan\u2019s ruling coalition meanwhile declared victory in a sombre election held Sunday, just two days after Abe was gunned down on the campaign trail. Abe\u2019s body was moved from his family home to the Zojoji temple on Monday afternoon, where his wake is being held ahead of tomorrow\u2019s private funeral.
\nPublic memorials for him are expected at a later date, with no immediate plans set for the events. Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a previously unscheduled trip to Japan while travelling in Asia to offer Washington\u2019s condolences.
\nHe handed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida letters from US President Joe Biden for Abe\u2019s family and said he had come because \u201cwe\u2019re friends, and when one friend is hurting, the other friend shows up\u201d.
\nReligious group
\nThe man accused of Abe\u2019s murder, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, is in custody and has told police he targeted the former leader because he believed he was linked to a specific organisation that authorities have not yet named.
\nJapanese media reports said he blamed the group, described as a religious organisation, for his family\u2019s financial troubles because his mother made large donations to it.
\nThe Unification Church, a global religious movement founded in Korea in the 1950s, said on Monday that Yamagami\u2019s mother was a member.
\n\u201cShe has been attending our events about once a month,\u201d Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the church in Japan, told a hastily organised press conference in Tokyo, declining to comment on donations she may have made.
\nTanaka said the church was horrified by Abe\u2019s \u201cbarbaric\u201d murder and would cooperate with police investigations.
\nYamagami, believed to have spent three years in Japan\u2019s navy, had watched YouTube videos to help learn how to build homemade guns like the one used in the attack, investigative sources told local media.<\/p>\n
Election victory
\nSunday\u2019s election went ahead despite the assassination, with Kishida saying it was important to show violence would not defeat democracy.
\nAbe\u2019s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito won 76 of the 125 upper house seats up for grabs, up from the 69 seats they previously held, according to national news outlets.
\nThe victory had been widely expected even before the assassination.
\nBoth parties belong to what is now a two-thirds supermajority open to amending the country\u2019s pacifist constitution. Abe long sought to reform the charter to recognise the country\u2019s military.
\nKishida told reporters on Monday that the seats gained represented a chance to \u201cprotect Japan\u201d and build on the achievements of Abe, who local media said Monday would receive Japan\u2019s highest decoration.
\nKishida, who took office in September, has pledged to tackle the pandemic, inflation and issues related to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, and there was speculation that Friday\u2019s attack could bolster his support.
\nBut turnout was up only marginally, and still low at a reported 52 percent.
\nA record 35 female candidates were elected, and some fringe candidates also won for the first time including one from an anti-vaccination party.
\nAbe was the scion of a political family and became the country\u2019s youngest post-war prime minister when he took power for the first time in 2006, aged 52.
\nHis hawkish, nationalist views were divisive, particularly his desire to reform the pacifist constitution, and he weathered a series of scandals, including allegations of cronyism.
\nBut he was lauded by others for his economic strategy, dubbed \u201cAbenomics,\u201d and his efforts to put Japan firmly on the world stage, including by cultivating close ties with Biden\u2019s predecessor Donald Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOKYO Family and friends of Japan\u2019s assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe paid their respects Monday at a wake in Tokyo as Washington\u2019s top diplomat hailed the ex-premier as a \u201cman of vision.\u201d Japan\u2019s ruling coalition meanwhile declared victory in a sombre election held Sunday, just two days after Abe was gunned down on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9519,9521,9520],"class_list":{"0":"post-270806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-former-japan-pm","9":"tag-man-of-vision","10":"tag-mourned"},"yoast_head":"\n