A portrait of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is displayed inside the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on Sept 27, 2022. - AFP
TOKYO (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, a giant in diplomacy yet controversial at home, was given a final send-off in a state funeral attended by about 4,300 guests, including 700 from abroad, on Tuesday (Sept 27).
The event, held at the Nippon Budokan arena that hosted Olympic events, was also a stone's throw from the Yasukuni Shrine that is seen as a symbol of its wartime history.
A vehicle ferrying Abe’s ashes left his home in Shibuya ward earlier and arrived at the venue in Tokyo for the ceremony at 2pm (1pm in Singapore).
Abe's widow Akie, dressed in a black kimono, carried the ashes in a box covered with a decorative fabric into the Budokan venue as a 19-gun salute sounded in honour of the slain ex-premier, according to AFP.
Inside the Budokan, 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 Group of Seven leaders, holding hands with children and visiting disaster areas, according to Reuters.
Earlier in the day, members of the public lined up outside the Nippon Budokan to lay flowers at public wreath-laying stands set up at the Kudanzaka Park from 10am to 4pm.
Security across the capital is watertight to avoid the blunders that led to Abe's assassination, with tens of thousands of police officers from across the country congregating in Tokyo to provide support.
The idea of a 'state funeral' is by itself highly divisive, even if Japan was united in shock in the immediate wake of Abe's death.
He was killed by a lone gunman who used a homemade firegun out of anger over the leader's alleged ties with the Unification Church, a South Korean-based outfit with supposedly coercive tactics that have bankrupted and broken up families.
Legal experts argue that the state funeral is unconstitutional, a relic of the imperial era supreme law.
This is only the second time in post-war history - since one for former PM Shigeru Yoshida in 1967 - that a state funeral is held. Former PM Eisaku Sato, Japan's second-longest serving postwar premier and the only one to have won a Nobel Peace Prize, was not accorded the honour.
Political experts argue that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had, by deciding on the event within his Cabinet without going through a Diet debate, flouted protocol.
Ordinary Japanese are divided, with polls showing at least six in 10 against the 'state funeral', held 81 days after Abe died, and the expense of a whopping 1.66 billion yen (S$16.5 million) to remember him.
In acknowledgement of the differing opinions among the public, Kishida's government has said that nobody will be forced to mourn Abe.
Tuesday has not been declared a public holiday and schools are not being asked to close. Local governments have not been requested to fly the national flag at half-mast
On Monday night, a protest against the state funeral took place in Osaka, halfway across the country. Organisers said it was attended by 900 people.
Two warring movements have broken out on social media.
One hashtag, of respect, reads, "Abe-san arigatou" (Thank you Mr Abe), with a link to an online digital flower offering site for those to remember the slain prime minister. More than 191,000 signatures have been gathered as of 7.30am on Tuesday on the website.
Another, of anger, reads, "I will protest the state funeral until the final moments".
A protest, with the involvement of activists such as 33-year-old Nahoko Hishiyama, has been organised and expected to take place outside the National Diet Building at 2pm - the same time as the state funeral.
Calls to disregard the minute of silence by creating a loud ruckus have, however, been lambasted online as "a disgrace" and "a sign of poor character and upbringing, regardless of what one thinks of the state funeral".
Protesting outside the wreath-laying stands on Tuesday morning, Koji Sugihara, 56, a part-time worker in administration, said that taxpayers money should not be spent on such an event when Japanese are suffering.
Costs of living in Japan are rising – inflation hit a 31-year high in August – but real wages per capita have barely risen for three decades.
Sugihara said he will attend the protest outside the National Diet Building at 2pm.
Kishida, meanwhile, is embarking on what he has termed "condolence diplomacy" by holding a series of back-to-back revolving door summit meetings with visiting world leaders.
Among the top-level leaders in attendance are Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Most meetings last just 20 minutes; Kishida also hosted a dinner reception for visiting United States Vice-President Kamala Harris on Monday.
Some 218 countries, regions and international organisations will be represented at the state funeral, though a majority by ministerial or ambassadorial level representatives or former leaders.
France and Germany are sending former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Christian Wulff, and Britain and Italy are sending former prime ministers Theresa May and Matteo Renzi.
China, which will mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties with Japan on Thursday, is dispatching former science and technology minister Wan Gang.
Taiwan, meanwhile, will be represented by ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Su Jia-chyuan, who chairs the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association.
Offering his condolences in a public message, Takeshi Niinami, chief executive of homegrown beverage giant Suntory, remembered Abe for his outstanding leadership, his "vivid and challenging vision collectively known as Abenomics", and for transforming "the way people around the world looked at the world map" with the phrase, Free and Open Indo-Pacific.
"The loss of a leader with the power of words that resonate not only in Japan but throughout the world is a great loss for our country, and I cannot help but regret it," Niinami said.
