Tokyo
While not quite on the scale of Her Majesty’s service, Tuesday’s state funeral of Japan’s longest serving PM Shinzo Abe, gunned down while campaigning on the streets of Nara in July, will be an extravagant affair. The ceremony will take place at the Nippon Budokan in central Tokyo with approximately 6,000 attendees including the US Vice President Kamala Harris, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and Australian PM Anthony Albanese. Theresa May will represent the UK. It will cost 1.6 billion yen (10.5 million pounds).
The event has become mired in controversy. Many in Japan are fiercely opposed to the decision, made by current PM Fumio Kishida, to grant a state funeral to Abe, allegedly to placate his party’s right-wing. With opposition growing, commentators are speculating that Japan’s current leader has made a significant error.
The revelations following the assassination of Shinzo Abe have led many to angrily question the secretive workings of Japanese politics
Kishida defended his decision with reference to Abe’s contribution to Japanese society, but critics say this is at best irrelevant, at worst untrue.
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