The controversy over the merits of the tribute to Shinzo Abe, assassinated in July, is not likely to die out. Japan will pay around 1.7 billion yen (12.1 million euros) for the state funeral of its former prime minister, scheduled for September 27 in Tokyo.
The Japanese government had already announced a cost of nearly 250 million yen for the ceremony itself and warned that the final bill would be higher because of the costs of security and reception of many foreign dignitaries. Representatives from more than 190 countries and territories are expected to attend the event, including about 50 heads of state and other distinguished foreign guests, Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said on Tuesday. Security costs were thus estimated at 800 million yen and those for receiving foreign dignitaries at 600 million yen, he said.
The majority of Japanese opposed to this funeral
Very quickly after the assassination of Shinzo Abe, on July 8 during an electoral rally in Nara, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that he wanted to organize a state funeral for him. However, a tribute of this rank for a former Prime Minister has been extremely rare in Japan since the post-war period, the precedent dating back to 1967. 2012-2020) and by his intense international activity, the record of his domestic policy is highly controversial and his terms of office have been tainted by numerous political and financial scandals.
According to a poll published Monday by the conservative daily Yomiuri, 56% of respondents were against the state funeral. Some citizens are rather hostile to public funding of this ceremony, while others are opposed to it because they believe it amounts to forcing the entire population to glorify Shinzo Abe, a divisive figure on the nationalist right.
Supposed links to the Unification Church
His alleged assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, explained after his arrest that he had targeted the former prime minister for his supposed links with the Unification Church, also known as the “Moon sect”. The suspect’s mother is said to have made large donations to this religious organization in the past, leading her family to ruin.
The popularity of Fumio Kishida’s government melted this summer after cascading revelations about the links between many elected officials of his party and the Unification Church and the controversy over the state funeral for Shinzo Abe.
