Shinzo Abe’s family and friends gathered at a Tokyo temple Tuesday for a private funeral, while mourners outside condemned the leader’s “despicable” murder.
Abe was shot at close range during a campaign speech in Nara on Friday, just days before upper house elections in which his ruling party strengthened its grip on power.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, the murder suspect, is in custody and has told police that he targeted Abe because he believed the politician was connected to an organisation he despised.
Although the funeral rites were restricted to family members and close associates, long lines of people, some dressed in black, gathered at Japan’s longest-serving prime minister’s memorial at the Zojoji temple.
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“I couldn’t get over my sadness, so I came here to lay flowers and say a prayer,” Tsukasa Yokawa, 41, told AFP, describing Abe as “a great prime minister who did a lot to elevate Japan’s presence” on the global stage.
“It’s heinous,” Yuko Takehisa, a 51-year-old assistant nurse from Kanagawa, near Tokyo, said.
“More could have been done to prevent it,” she said, lamenting the fact that “no one reported” Yamagami to police despite reports that he had tested-fired a homemade gun prior to the attack.
Satoshi Ninoyu, the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, a cabinet position in charge of national police, promised on Tuesday that any security failings would be thoroughly investigated.
Local police have already admitted that their security plan for the high-profile politician, who was approached from behind and shot in broad daylight, had flaws.
Police searches of the suspect’s home turned up pellets and other possible building materials for a gun similar to the crude weapon used in the attack, according to Japanese media, citing unnamed investigative sources.
– Expressions of sympathy pour in –
Yamagami served in the Japanese navy for three years and allegedly told investigators that his mother’s large donations to a religious organisation caused the family’s financial difficulties.
Yamagami’s mother was a member of the Unification Church, a global religious movement founded in Korea in the 1950s, the Unification Church said on Monday, but it did not comment on any donations she may have made.
The assassination of Abe sparked shock and outrage in Japan and around the world, as well as an outpouring of condolence messages.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi announced on Tuesday that 259 countries, territories, and international organisations had sent condolence messages.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tokyo unexpectedly to pay tribute to Abe, describing him as a “man of vision.”
Taiwanese Vice President William Lai was also in Tokyo on an unannounced visit, according to Taiwanese media.
The visit has the potential to enrage Beijing, though Hayashi stated that Lai was travelling privately and that Japan’s policy on working non-governmental relations with Taiwan had not changed.
Following the funeral on Tuesday, Abe’s body will be driven past some of Tokyo’s most important political landmarks, including the prime minister’s residence, known as the Kantei, and the country’s parliament, the Diet.
Public memorials are expected to be held at a later date, with top foreign political leaders expected to attend, though no specifics have been announced.
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Abe, the scion of a political family, became Japan’s youngest postwar prime minister when he took office for the first time in 2006, at the age of 52.
He stepped down at the end of his second term in 2020 due to health issues.
His hawkish, nationalist views were divisive, particularly his desire to reform the pacifist constitution, and he was embroiled in a series of scandals, including cronyism allegations.
Others, however, praised him for his economic strategy, dubbed “Abenomics,” and his efforts to solidify Japan’s position on the global stage, including close ties with former US President Donald Trump.
