27th September, 2022
Japan on Tuesday honoured slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with flowers, prayers, and a 19-gun salute at the first state funeral in 55 years.
Thousand of mourners gathered as the ceremony started at 2:00 p.m. (0500 GMT), with Abe’s ashes carried into the Nippon Budokan Hall in central Tokyo by his widow, Akie.
A large portrait of Abe draped with black ribbon hung over a bank of green, white and yellow flowers. Nearby, a wall of photos showed him strolling with G7 leaders, holding hands with children and visiting disaster areas.
Protesters brandished placards and chanted “No state funeral” to the sound of a guitar in one area of downtown Tokyo.
However, thousands of mourners descended on the burial venue early that morning, forcing the organisers to open the hall 30 minutes earlier than planned.
In a matter of hours, 10,000 people—most of whom were in long lines—had placed flowers and made quiet prayers in front of Abe’s image, according to television footage.
Following Abe’s murder at a campaign rally on July 8, a reaction against current premier Fumio Kishida was sparked by revelations about connections between lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which he once led, and the Unification Church, which critics describe as a cult.
Kishida has apologized and vowed to sever party links to the church after the incident caused his support ratings to drop to their lowest level ever.
Reuters