Roads were blocked and expressways temporarily closed while helicopters dotted central Tokyo’s azure skyline Tuesday as huge throngs gathered around the Nippon Budokan arena for what may be remembered as one of the biggest, and perhaps most controversial, ceremonial events in Japan in recent years: The state funeral of slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Up to 20,000 police officers were deployed to ramp up security for the ceremony taking place at the Budokan — a storied venue that has hosted Olympic competitions and legendary musical acts including The Beatles. Around 4,300 people attended the event, 700 of them being foreign dignitaries and officials.
At nearby Kudanzaka Park, two stands were erected for members of the public to lay flowers, with queues extending for several kilometers as thousands of mourners waited for hours in line. Due to the length of the line, people were allowed to continue laying flowers after the originally scheduled closing time of 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters from various organizations opposing the memorial service — ranging from citizens groups to those linked to radical sects — marched outside security blockades with loudspeakers, sound trucks and placards.
The event — which has an estimated ¥1.66 billion price tag and is only the second of its kind for a former prime minister in the nation’s postwar history — had triggered heated debate ever since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans for it in mid-July, less than a week after Abe was assassinated by a lone gunman while delivering a stump speech. The suspect reportedly held a grudge against Abe due to the politician's alleged ties with the Unification Church, a global religious movement founded in South Korea.
Visitors paying their respects at the flower stands said Abe’s murder had left them aghast.
“As a Japanese person, I wanted to express my gratitude to former Prime Minister Abe,” said a 41-year-old man from Tokyo, who wished to remain anonymous. Citing Abe’s foreign policy as one of his primary achievements, the man said he didn’t think “there was a leader who gained as much respect from overseas” as Abe did.
While recent media polls suggest that most of the public are opposed to the state funeral, the man said the fact that so many people came to offer flowers “is proof that the majority of people are supportive of (the state funeral).”
Meanwhile, Eri Ogawa, a Tokyo resident in her 20s, said she didn’t originally plan to participate in the event, but happened to be in the area for a personal errand.
“I don’t really have a strong opinion on (holding the state funeral),” she said. “I understand the claims of those who oppose the event, but a lot of people including those from rural regions are coming (to offer flowers), so I think it’s OK to just have one day of (the state funeral).”
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was known for his diplomatic acumen and bold fiscal and monetary policies dubbed Abenomics. But his second term — which ran from 2012 to 2020 — was also marked by political scandals including accusations of cronyism, while his murder heightened public scrutiny of the Unification Church’s connections with lawmakers.
At Kinka Park, roughly a kilometer from the Budokan and one of the several places where protestors gathered, around 200 to 300 participants belonging to several organizations including anti-war groups and labor unions prepared to march under the blazing sun as uniformed police officers filled the surrounding streets.
Among them was Takuma Wada, a 29-year-old clad in traditional Japanese summer clothing who said he was part of the All Freeters Union, a labor group for part time and temporary workers.
Standing next to a sound car pumping dance music at a loud volume, he said it was unfair that Abe received a state funeral when “there are working people everywhere, people working in factories, working in nursing homes.”
“You have all these people working incredibly hard, and the only person to receive a state funeral is someone we know has done a lot of things wrong, and I want to protest against that,” he said.
Yoko, a 72 year-old woman wearing a blue top and wide-brimmed white sun hat who declined to give her surname, sat nearby with a sign reading “kokusō hantai” (“against the state funeral”).
“I’m here for a number of reasons — mainly because this state funeral goes against the rule of law, but also because Abe left behind various problems that are far from being resolved,” she said. “For me, it’s really unthinkable that someone who has left behind so many unresolved issues should be honored with a state funeral.”
Mourning and protests weren’t limited to the area around the Budokan.
In front of Yamato Saidaiji Station in the city of Nara, where Abe was shot on July 8, people were seen placing flowers and offering silent prayers. Nara officials, concerned about traffic flow around the busy station, asked those coming to pay their respects to take home their flower bouquets after they were finished.
Around Japan, local governments made their own gestures of respect for Abe. NHK reported that 46 of Japan’s 47 prefectures agreed to fly their flags at half-mast, with the exception of Okinawa Prefecture. Forty-three governors attended the funeral, with only those of Nagano, Miyazaki, Shizuoka and Okinawa absent.
Miyazaki Gov. Shunji Kono cited the need to deal with the damage from a recent typhoon, while Nagano Gov. Shuichi Abe was attending a memorial for victims of a 2014 volcano eruption and Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu said he’d already expressed his condolences at Yamato Saidaiji Station.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki cited Abe’s controversial legacy and concerns about the way the government decided to hold the funeral as his reasons.
There were also small-scale protests against the funeral on Tuesday in Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya and Sapporo.
In central Sapporo, several dozen demonstrators criticized Kishida for deciding to hold the funeral with national tax money, as well as Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki for agreeing to use prefectural tax money in order to attend, saying both leaders ignored public opinion polls that showed more than half of all Japanese opposed a state-funded funeral.
Staff writer Alex. K.T. Martin contributed to this report.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.