After a Brutal Assassination, Japan Mourns and Carries On

TOKYO — A day after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a political rally, the police in Japan faced sharp questions about the adequacy of his security, even as parliamentary candidates resumed campaigning Saturday, in a sign that despite the tragedy, political life was carrying on.

White vans bearing large photos of politicians and blaring their names from loudspeakers rode through the streets. Candidates fist-bumped with supporters and posed for selfies. And politicians, many from Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, made their final appeals to voters before an election Sunday, in the shadow of deep mourning.

Standing on a truck in the glitzy Ginza fashion district of central Tokyo, Akiko Ikuina, an LDP candidate and former pop idol running for a seat in Japan’s Upper House, cried as she said that “those of us who are left behind must help make Abe’s vision for our country come true.” During a moment of silence, some of the hundreds of supporters in the audience wept.

It is common during Japanese campaign stops for politicians to mingle freely with voters, keeping almost no distance between themselves and the crowd.

But the ease with which a lone gunman could carry a homemade tape-wrapped weapon up to Abe, once one of the world’s most powerful leaders, may lead some in Japan to rethink that openness.

In the wake of Abe’s assassination — in a country where gun deaths are a rarity, let alone the gunning down of a major political figure — Japan was only beginning to process the shock.

Hundreds of people in Nara lined up Saturday to pay their respects to Abe at a makeshift memorial at the site near the Yamato-Saidaiji railway station where he was assassinated. Even as rain poured down in the midafternoon, visitors of all ages stood in line.

In Tokyo, as political candidates wrapped up their campaigns, life continued at pace. In Shibuya, the city’s popular shopping and entertainment district, crowds thronged fashion stores, and cafes and restaurants were full. A flag at Tokyo Dome flew at half-staff as the Yomiuri Giants played the Yokohama DeNA Baystars, but there was no moment of silence before the game.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .