Under heavy security measures to protect the 4,000 in attendance and 700 foreign guests, the Japanese government honors its former prime minister with strong public opposition over the high costs
He was controversial in life and remains so after his death. With public opposition as strong as security measures, the state funeral will be held this Tuesday for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, assassinated on July 8 during a rally in the city of Nara, at the Budokan Pavilion in Tokyo. Shot by a 41-year-old former soldier who blamed him for the demise of his family, his death sent shockwaves not only through safe and peaceful Japan, but around the world.
To honor the figure of Abe, who led the country between 2006 and 2007 and between 2012 and 2020 and is Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, the government decided to fire him with full honors and give him a state funeral. A tribute to his work, because since the end of the Second World War in 1945, only one former prime minister had been recognized with such a high distinction. It happened in 1967 and it was Shigeru Yoshida, the architect of Japan’s “economic miracle” and the restoration of its national sovereignty after its defeat in the war.
Despite Abe’s achievements and landslide electoral victories, Japanese society is divided over his state funeral. The reasons: the high cost to the taxpayer, estimated at 1,600 million yen (eleven million euros), and the controversial political legacy. This is apparent from a recent survey by the newspaper ‘Mainichi’, in which 62% of those consulted were against this ceremony.
Added to his management, marked by his eagerness to reform Japan’s pacifist constitution and ‘Abenomics’ to face the rise of China, are the numerous scandals that graced his two terms. Of all, two would bring him down: the loss of the files of 50 million pensioners in 2007 and the peddling of the ultra-nationalist Moritomo Gakuen nursery in Osaka in 2018, which even led to the falsification of official documents at the Ministry of Finance. When the newspaper ‘Asahi’ discovered the connections between the nursery and the Abes, one of the officials confessed in his suicide note that his superiors had forced him to manipulate the files and 30,000 people came to demonstrate demanding the prime minister’s resignation. But nothing worked for Abe except his own health, which forced him to resign for the second time in August 2020 due to the same ulcerative colitis that had caused him to resign in 2007.
After shooting him with a homemade weapon, his killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, confessed that he did not do it for political reasons, but out of personal revenge. He brazenly accused Abe of supporting a religious group, the Unification Church, to which his mother had donated all her money. It has since been discovered that 179 out of 379 deputies of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have some relationship with this sect, founded in 1954 in South Korea by the famous Reverend Moon and known around the world for its mass weddings and weddings. its anti-communist traditionalism. Fearing the political clout that his followers, dubbed the “Moonies,” may have, this is the latest scandal starring Abe even after his death.
Among the protests of his opponents, such as the 70-year-old man who set himself on fire at the prime minister’s residence last week, the state funeral will take place from 2 p.m. (7 a.m., Spanish Peninsula time). ). About 4,000 people are expected, including 700 foreign guests, such as United States Vice President Kamala Harris, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his friend Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Paladin from the Tokyo 2020 Games, which couldn’t open because they were postponed for a year due to the pandemic, one of the most remembered images of Abe is when he appeared dressed as Super Mario to collect the Olympic witness at the closing of Rio 2016.
Although a private funeral was held for Abe and his body was cremated four days after his murder, he will now be sent away with all the pomp the occasion demands. The venue chosen is the warm Budokan Pavilion, which was built to host the judo events at the Tokyo 64 Games, has hosted mythical concerts such as Bob Dylan’s in 1978, and in the summer of 2021, Spain’s Sandra Sánchez was crowned Olympic karate champion. To his long history has now been added this state funeral for Shinzo Abe with which his successors, Yoshihide Suga and the current Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, glorify his figure. From the morning, in the pleasant gardens of Kitanomaru, around the Budokan, Abe’s followers leave flowers in his memory, but there is no book of condolence to sign.
With more than 18,000 officers, Tokyo’s police are on alert and have deployed security similar to those used at the Olympics and Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement in 2019. Though on a much smaller scale than Elizabeth II’s recent funeral of England, Japan use Abe’s farewell to show off diplomatically, and Prime Minister Kishida meets 40 leaders from around the world, such as their Australian and South Korean counterparts, Anthony Albanese and Han Duck-soo, respectively. As he did all his life, Shinzo Abe does not leave anyone indifferent even after his death.
Source: La Verdad
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