Shinzo Abe: Japan to spend $1.8 million on funeral

The Japanese government says it plans to spend an estimated $1.83 million on a state funeral for slain former leader Shinzo Abe.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno made the disclosure while addressing a news conference on Friday.

“Abe was highly regarded both within Japan and internationally, and there have been many messages of condolence (since his death).

“We believe it is necessary for Japan as a country to respond to that as international etiquette, and so we decided that it is best to conduct this funeral as an official event hosted by the government and have international visitors attend,” Matsuno said.

Several current and former world leaders are expected to attend, with news reports saying arrangements were being made for former U.S. President Barack Obama to take part.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend, the Kremlin said in July.

Shinzo Abe, who was Japan’s longest-serving premier, was shot and killed at an election rally on July 8.

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Abe’s funeral service was held soon after his killing, but the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an Abe protege, decided a state funeral would be held and paid for solely with state funds.

The state funeral is scheduled to hold at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan arena on September 27.

Unification Church

The public, angered by revelations of the ruling party’s ties to the Unification Church, are increasingly opposed to the use of state funds for the funeral.

The church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s and famous for its mass weddings, has over the years faced questions over how its solicits donations.

Abe’s suspected assassin bore a grudge against the church, alleging it made his mother bankrupt, and he blamed Abe for promoting it.

Japan’s last fully state-funded funeral for a prime minister was for Shigeru Yoshida in 1967.

Subsequent ones have been paid for by both the state and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which Abe was an influential member.

Zainab Sa’id