Thousands of people came to gather on Tuesday as Shinzo Abe’s funeral procession passed by. After the ceremony dedicated to the former Japanese Prime Minister assassinated last Friday, he circulated in front of symbolic places in Tokyo. The ceremony took place at the beginning of the afternoon, local time, at the Zojoji temple, in the center of the Japanese capital, in the presence in particular of his widow, Akie, and the Prime Minister in office, Fumio Kishida.
Many Japanese went spontaneously in the morning in front of the temple to pay homage to the leader whose violent death at the age of 67 shocked the country. “I am shocked and angry. I can’t get over my sadness, so I came to lay flowers and pray,” said Tsukasa Yokawa, 41. “I really respected him. He was a great Prime Minister who did a lot to increase Japan’s presence in the world”. Public tributes will take place at a later date in Tokyo and in the department of Yamaguchi (southwest of the country), of which Shinzo Abe was one of the deputies.
1700 official messages of condolences
After the ceremony, the funeral procession left the temple to pass in front of political institutions where Shinzo Abe officiated during his career: Parliament, the Prime Minister’s office and the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, nationalist right) in power. In front of each venue, ministers, officials and employees bowed with folded hands. Seated at the front of a black hearse, Mrs. Abe held in front of her the wooden tablet on which was inscribed the posthumous name of her husband according to Buddhist tradition.
More than 2,000 people attended a wake Monday at the same temple, including the head of government, a representative of Emperor Naruhito, figures from Japan’s political and economic world and foreign diplomats. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, currently traveling in Asia, was present at the wake, and Taiwan’s vice president made a private visit to Tokyo for the occasion. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also announced on Tuesday that more than 1,700 condolence messages have been received in total from 259 countries, territories and international organizations. According to local media, Shinzo Abe will posthumously receive the Grand Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, the most prestigious decoration in the Archipelago.
The Moon sect in the backdrop of the murder
He was attacked with a firearm on Friday while taking part in an electoral rally in Nara (west of the country) for the senatorial elections on Sunday, at the end of which the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, nationalist right in power), to which he belonged, won a comfortable victory. Tetsuya Yamagami, his suspected killer and immediately arrested after the attack, is a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the Japanese Navy. According to police sources quoted by local media, the 41-year-old man watched videos on YouTube showing how to make a homemade firearm like the one used in the attack.
The suspect explained his act because he resented an organization he thought Shinzo Abe was affiliated with. Japanese media quickly claimed that it was a religious organization to which the suspect’s mother would have made large donations, putting their family in great financial difficulty. The Unification Church, a cult of South Korean origin also known as the “Moon Sect”, confirmed at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday that the suspect’s mother was among its followers, but assured that Shinzo Abe was neither a member nor an adviser of the organization.
Shinzo Abe held the record for longevity as Prime Minister of Japan, which he held in 2006-2007, then again from the end of 2012 to the summer of 2020. Both nationalist and pragmatic, he made an impression with its bold economic policy dubbed “Abenomics”, combining massive fiscal stimulus with an ultra-accommodative monetary policy. However, the results are mixed. He also advocated a Japan free from its militaristic past and dreamed of revising the pacifist Japanese Constitution of 1947, written by the American occupiers and never amended since. He had been forced to resign for health reasons, but had remained very influential within the PLD which he had led for a long time.