“I was against his funeral from the start and I have no intention of going there,” released two days ago Seiichiro Murakama, a deputy of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) of which Shinzo Abe was the leader for years. And to add: “Shinzo Abe’s administration has destroyed Japan’s finances, diplomacy and even bureaucracy. He’s a pirate. »
Coming from a heavyweight of the party in power in Japan since 1955, this violent diatribe perfectly reflects the very lively controversy and the deep opposition of public opinion aroused by the national funeral of the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, assassinated on July 8 in Nara, in the middle of the electoral campaign. Several hundred dignitaries from around the world will attend, including US Vice President Kamala Harris and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. But no incumbent G7 leader made the trip.
Shinzo Abe was far from unanimous in Japan
“The day after his assassination, the international wave of tributes to Shinzo Abe fueled the illusion (among his supporters, editor’s note) that he enjoyed immense popularity, explains Koichi Nakano, political scientist, teacher at the famous Jesuit University of Sophia, in Tokyo. Admittedly, he broke the record for longevity in power for a Japanese prime minister (almost nine years, spread between 2006-2007 then 2012-2020). And he enjoyed a very good reputation internationally for his intense diplomatic activity and his ambitious policy of economic recovery, nicknamed “Abenomics”.
But inside Japan, it was far from unanimous. Many demonstrations, very rare in Japan, brought together thousands of people criticizing its revisionism on the war, its exacerbated nationalism and its very anti-feminist conservatism. And a major event is even planned for Tuesday, September 27, the day of the funeral.
“This assassination revealed to us the extent of the harmful influence of the Moon sect”
But it was above all his links and those of his party with the sulphurous Moon sect (Unification Church) that shook all of Japan. His assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, 43, explained to the police that he was angry with him precisely for the links of the PLD with this sect which had ruined his mother. Present in Japan since the 1960s to raise funds, the sect has crushed and ruined tens of thousands of Japanese throughout the country. “We knew this sect existedrecognizes Kaori Yushita, salesperson in an import-export company, but this assassination revealed to us the extent of his harmful influence on many people but also in the country’s politics. »
Since the death of Shinzo Abe, revelations have continued to rain down on the extent of the links between this Church and Japanese parliamentarians, especially from the Liberal Democratic Party. At the beginning of September, an internal PLD investigation showed that half of its 379 elected members of Parliament had relations with the Unification Church, accused of exerting financial pressure on its faithful, which has already earned it numerous trials and convictions. Although current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his government in August and promised that the LDP would cut all ties with the Unification Church, his government’s popularity has waned in part because of the affair.
Finally, beyond the fact that Fumio Kishida exceeded his rights by deciding to organize such a ceremony without prior discussion in Parliament, the bill of 12 million euros remains in the throat of taxpayers. While inflation continues to rise for food products and electricity bills will explode this winter because of the war in Ukraine, the Japanese do not accept this “waste of public money”.