A lot of media outlets are suggesting that the assassination of Shinzo Abe led to a lot of sympathy votes for the Liberal Democratic Party, which won big in yesterday’s House of Councillors election.
The LDP picked up 8 (out of 245) seats to win half of all the seats in the Upper House on their own, while their longtime coalitions partners Komeito* lost one seat and the Japan Innovation Party* picked up six seats. These three parties combined now have enough seats to change the Constitution of Japan, which requires a 2/3 majority.
*Komeito is literally the political party wing of Soka Gakkai, which is a cultish sect of Buddhism.
*Japan Innovation Party is a bizarre populist party founded by the asshole former governor of Osaka Prefecture, Toru Hashimoto.
On the assassination front, the only new news that I am seeing is that Tetsuya Yamagami used Youtube to learn how to make the guns, because of course he did.
