With flowers, prayers, and a 19-gun salute, Japan honored slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday at the first state funeral for a former premier in 55 years.
Thousands of mourners flooded to designated spots near the venue from early morning to pay their last respects.
Within hours, about 10,000 people had laid flowers, television showed, with more waiting in three-hour long queues.
About 4,300 people attended the funeral ceremony itself, including Japanese Crown Prince Akishino and at least 48 current or former government figures, such as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Russia’s ambassador to Japan, Mikhail Galuzin, also attended.
The ceremony began with Abe’s widow, Akie Abe, in a black formal kimono, carrying an urn in a wooden box wrapped in a purple cloth with gold stripes, into the Nippon Budokan Hall in central Tokyo, to music from a military band and the booms of the honor-guard salute. Soldiers in white uniforms took Abe’s ashes and placed them on a pedestal filled with white and yellow chrysanthemums and decorations.
Attendants stood while a military band played the Kimigayo national anthem, then observed a moment of silence before a video was shown praising Abe’s life in politics. It included his 2006 parliamentary speech vowing to build a “beautiful Japan,” his visits to disaster-hit northern Japan after the March 2011 tsunami, and his 2016 Super Mario impersonation in Rio de Janeiro to promote the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in a 12-minute eulogy, praised Abe as a politician with a clear vision for post-World War II economic growth who promoted national security, the development of Japan and the world and a “free and open Indo-Pacific” as a counter to the threats from the Chinese regime.
“You were a person who should have lived much longer,” Kishida said as he looked up at a massive photo of Abe. “I had a firm belief that you would contribute as a compass showing the future direction of Japan and the rest of the world for 10 or 20 more years.”
Kishida said Abe will be remembered not just as the nation’s longest-serving leader but for what he achieved, and he pledged to carry on Abe’s policies for Japan and the region.
Yoshihide Suga, Abe’s successor and Kishida’s predecessor as prime minister, noted that many people in their 20s and 30s had showed up to offer flowers.
“You always said you wanted to make Japan better, that you wanted young people to have hope and pride,” Suga said, his voice trembling.
Abe’s widow wiped away tears as Suga spoke.
During the ceremony, Harris sat in the third row next to Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, and they later joined others by placing a branch of chrysanthemums on a table near Abe’s photo.
The ceremony ended after the last mourner placed flowers on the stage, after which Kishida and Akie Abe carried the ashes out of the hall.
Abe was cremated in July following a private funeral at a Tokyo temple days after he was assassinated while giving a campaign speech on a street in Nara in western Japan.
On the day of the state funeral, some 20,000 police were deployed, nearby roads were closed and even some schools shut as Japan sought to avoid the security blunders that led to Abe’s shooting with a homemade gun by a suspect who, police say, accused the Unification Church of impoverishing his family.
At a protest in downtown Tokyo, thousands of people marched toward the hall, some banging drums and many shouting or holding banners and signs stating their opposition.
“Shinzo Abe has not done a single thing for regular people,” participant Kaoru Mano said.
The state funeral for Abe, who received a private funeral days after his assassination, was the first for an ex-premier since one in 1967 for former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.
Kishida has explained the decision as a way of honoring Abe’s achievements, as well as standing up for democracy, but ordinary Japanese remain divided. Only 30 percent of respondents in a recent poll by TV Asahi agreed with hosting the funeral, against 54 percent opposed.
Following the funeral service Tuesday, Kishida greeted each of the foreign leaders at a reception at the Akasaka state guest house.
Harris, who had a tour of Zojoji temple, where Abe’s family funeral was held in July, credited Abe with coming up with a term for regional cooperation.
“There has been much that has been said in honor of his long leadership to Japan but also to the United States. It was he who coined the term ‘free and open Indo-Pacific,’ and as a member of the Indo-Pacific region, as America, we cherish those principles, and we stand by it,” she said.
