Japan elections honored Shinzo – After Prime Minister assassination

Japan’s ruling coalition swept to victory on Sunday in an election that took on heightened significance following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe, 67, was shot on Friday in the city of Nara while delivering a speech in support of candidates from his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), stunning a nation with one of the world’s lowest rates of gun violence. Japan’s leaders had urged the public to turn out and vote, denouncing the killing as an attack on democracy.

On Sunday, days ahead of Abe’s wake and funeral, the conservative LDP won more than half of the 125 seats up for grabs, according to Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK.