‘Thank you for your work, Abe’

TOKYO: With prayers, flowers and flags draped in black ribbons, Japan said farewell to Shinzo Abe, a polarising figure who dominated politics as the country’s longest- serving prime minister, before being gunned down at a campaign rally last week.

Crowds packed pavements lined with a heavy police presence as the hearse carrying Abe, who died at age 67, departed from a central Tokyo temple on a procession through the city yesterday.