A man attempted to set himself on fire Wednesday (September 21) near the Japanese prime minister’s office in Tokyo to protest the controversial state funeral scheduled for September 27 for slain former prime minister Shinzo Abe. According to several Japanese media which reported the facts, the man was then hospitalized.
“We have been informed that a man with burns has been found by a police officer (…) at a crossroads” near the Kantei, the complex in the heart of the Japanese capital housing the offices and residence of the prime minister, government spokesman Hirozaku Matsuno told a regular press briefing. However, he declined to say more: “The details are currently being examined by the police. »
A controversial national tribute
According to Japanese news agency Kyodo, the man was taken to hospital while still conscious and police found a message he allegedly left at the scene expressing strong opposition to a state funeral for Shinzo Abe. Claiming to be in his seventies, he also reportedly told the police that he doused himself in gasoline and set it on fire himself.
A personality as emblematic as it is controversial of the nationalist right in Japan, Shinzo Abe had left power in 2020 for health reasons. He was shot dead on July 8 in the middle of an election rally in Nara (western Japan) at the age of 65. His presumed assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, immediately arrested after the events, explained that he was angry with the Unification Church, nicknamed the « Sect Moon »with which the former head of government had links, according to him.
This assassination has moved in Japan and around the world. But the decision without prior consultation by current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to organize a state funeral for Shinzo Abe has raised a wave of disapproval of an unexpected magnitude in the country. State funerals for politicians have been extremely rare in Japan since the post-war period: the last ceremony of this magnitude for a Japanese prime minister dates back to 1967.
Funeral at 12 million euros
The cost to the taxpayer of that planned for Shinzo Abe, in the presence of hundreds of foreign dignitaries, has been estimated by the government at 1.7 billion yen (12 million euros). She has cringed in part of the opinion.
Shinzo Abe broke the longevity record in power for a Japanese prime minister (almost 9 years between 2006-2007 then 2012-2020) and he was known internationally for his intense diplomatic activity and his ambitious economic recovery policy. , nicknamed the « Abenomics ».
But he was very far from being unanimous in his country, where many saw with a dim view his nationalist views and his desire to revise the pacifist Japanese Constitution. His reputation had also been tarnished by numerous cases of clientelism.