After the shock, meditation. Two weeks after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno announced on Friday that a national tribute would be held in Tokyo on September 27. The event will be held at the Nippon Budokan, a center of martial arts competitions, where the surrender of Japan in 1945 and its deaths during the Second World War are also commemorated.
Hirokazu Matsuno again insisted that Shinzo Abe deserved this national tribute, given his longevity record in power (nearly 9 years over two terms), his “praiseworthy” record and the close ties he had established with foreign heads of state. “We will also accept foreign dignitaries, and the countries with which we have diplomatic relations will be informed of the details,” he added.
A critical commemoration
The national ceremony for Shinzo Abe will be “non-denominational, simple and sober” and its budget has not yet been set, Hirokazu Matsuno said on Friday. This project was poorly received by opposition parties, questioning the merits of spending taxpayers’ money in this way. A group of citizens has even taken this debate to court, demanding an injunction from a Tokyo court to prevent this state funeral. Shinzo Abe was far from unanimous in Japan, with his ultra-nationalist views and his political career studded with numerous patronage scandals.
Shinzo Abe was shot dead on July 8 in Nara (western Japan) while he was giving a brief election speech in the middle of the street. The alleged shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, was immediately arrested. The shooter allegedly accuses the former prime minister of having maintained links with the Unification Church, a religious movement also known as the “Moon sect”, of which the suspect’s mother was a member and which allegedly ruined the family.
