Following former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination on Friday — two days before the Upper House election on Sunday — questions immediately arose about whether the vote would be held as scheduled.
After the shooting, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed his relevant ministers to increase security to make sure that the election will take place fairly. Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters that election campaigning will be held as scheduled Saturday “to show that (we) will not succumb to violence.”
With a lawmaker’s term stipulated in the Constitution — four years for Lower House members and six years for those in the Upper House — the government’s stance in the past suggests that polling dates cannot be changed.