Japan honours slain former PM Shinzo Abe in controversial state funeral

Japan honours slain former PM Shinzo Abe in controversial state funeral

With flowers, prayers and a 19-gun salute, Japan honoured slain former prime minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday at the first state funeral for a former premier in 55 years — a ceremony that has become as divisive as he was in life.

Abe's widow, Akie Abe, in a black formal kimono, walked slowly into the Budokan hall venue carrying an urn containing her husband's ashes, placed in a wooden box and wrapped in a purple cloth with gold stripes. Defence soldiers in white uniforms took Abe's ashes and placed them on a pedestal filled with white and yellow chrysanthemum flowers and decorations.

Abe's killing at a July 8 campaign rally set off a flood of revelations about ties between lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) he once ran and the Unification Church, which critics call a cult, sparking a backlash against current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

With his support ratings dragged to their lowest ever by the controversy, Kishida has apologized and vowed to cut party ties to the church.

But opposition to honouring Abe with a state funeral, the first such event since 1967, has persisted, fed by an $15.7-million Cdn price tag to be borne by the state at a time of economic pain for ordinary citizens. 

In one part of downtown Tokyo, protesters waved signs and chanted "No state funeral" to the tune of a guitar.

Akie Abe carries her husband's ashes at his state funeral. Abe was assassinated in July while campaigning on a street. ( Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images)Protesters attend a rally against Japan's state funeral for Abe in Tokyo on Tuesday. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

But thousands of mourners flooded to the funeral venue from early morning, forcing organizers to open the hall half an hour early. Within hours, about 10,000 people had laid flowers and bowed in silent prayer before Abe's picture, television showed, with far more waiting in three-hour long queues.

"I know it's divisive and there are a lot of people against this, but there were so many people lined up to offer flowers," said Yoshiko Kojima, a 63-year-old Tokyo housewife.

"I felt that now the funeral is actually taking place, many people have come out to pray for him."

Inside the Budokan, better known as a concert venue, 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.

Japan's Crown Prince Akishino, second from the left, and Crown Princess Kiko, third from the left, arrive with other family members. (Philip Fong/Pool/Reuters)U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris arrives at the state funeral. Several current and former heads of state also attended. (Eugene Hoshiko/Pool/Reuters)

A moment of silence was followed by a retrospective of Abe's political life and speeches by leading ruling party figures, including Kishida and Yoshihide Suga, Kishida's predecessor as prime minister.

Divisive figure

Japan's longest-serving prime minister was a divisive figure who was dogged by scandals.

An unapologetic nationalist, Abe pushed the country toward a muscular defence posture that many now see as prescient amid growing concern about China, but others criticized as too hawkish.

About 4,300 people were expected at the funeral ceremony itself along with at least 48 current or former government figures, including U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was scheduled to attend, but cancelled those plans to oversee recovery efforts after post-tropical storm Fiona ravaged much of Atlantic Canada and parts of Quebec.

Federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne attended in his place.

Some 20,000 police were deployed, nearby roads were closed and even some schools shut as Japan sought to avoid the security blunders that led to Abe's shooting with a homemade gun by a suspect who, police say, accused the Unification Church of impoverishing his family. 

WATCH | Shinzo Abe assassinated while campaigning: 

Shinzo Abe, former Japanese PM, assassinated

3 months ago
Duration 2:21
A man is in custody, and people across Japan are in mourning, after former prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead Friday morning while delivering a campaign speech.

The state funeral for Abe, who received a private funeral days after his assassination, was the first for an ex-premier since one in 1967 for former prime minister Shigeru Yoshida.

Kishida has explained the decision as a way of honouring Abe's achievements, as well as standing up for democracy, but ordinary Japanese remain divided. Only 30 per cent of respondents in a recent poll by TV Asahi agreed with hosting the funeral, against 54 per cent opposed.

Kishida also cited the chance to conduct diplomacy as a reason for the funeral, and spent Monday night and Tuesday morning in meetings with leaders.

Even without the recent revelations about the Unification Church, it would be hard to imagine any circumstances where a majority of Japanese would favour honouring Abe with a state funeral, said Tobias Harris, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress and the author of a biography of the former premier.

Soldiers walk in during Abe's state funeral. Thousands of mourners flooded to the funeral venue from early morning, forcing organizers to open the hall half an hour early. (Getty Images)People wait in line Tuesday to offer flowers at a park near the Nippon Budokan, the venue of the state funeral. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

"He was someone who almost welcomed and invited controversy and saw his mission as overturning a longstanding consensus or set of consensuses" about how Japan was run, Harris said.

Many Japanese were "attached to the postwar regime that he wanted to overturn," Harris said.

Mourners holding flowers line up toward the flower offering place near Nippon Budokan Hall, which hosted the state funeral. (Issei Kato/Reuters)