Tokyo: Japan will honour on Tuesday its assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a polarising figure who dominated modern-day politics as its longest-serving leader, with a rare state funeral.
Abe's killing at a July 8 campaign rally set off a flood of revelations about ties between lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) he once ran and the Unification Church, which critics call a cult, sparking a backlash against current premier Fumio Kishida.
With his support ratings dragged to their lowest ever by the controversy, Kishida has apologised and vowed to cut party ties to the church.
But opposition to honouring Abe with a state funeral, the first such event since 1967, has persisted, fed by an $11.5-million price tag to be borne by the state at a time of economic pain for ordinary citizens.
"I don't think this funeral should be held," said Hidemi Noto, a 38-year-old assistant movie director who had stopped by the site at the Nippon Budokan Hall on Monday to watch preparations.
"It has a completely different meaning to a funeral for ordinary people. I don't think we should use tax money for this."
Nevertheless, from early on Tuesday ordinary citizens began offering flowers at designated stands, starting earlier than planned due to demand.
About 4,300 are expected to attend Tuesday's ceremony and at least 48 current or former government figures, including US Vice President Kamala Harris and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kishida cited the chance for meeting with international leaders as another reason for hosting the funeral.
The sole Group of Seven (G7) leader set to join, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, cancelled in order to tackle a natural disaster at home.
The ceremony starts at 2:00 p.m. (0500 GMT), with Abe's ashes carried into the venue, and an honour guard will fire 19 rounds from a cannon.
Inside the Budokan, better known as a concert venue, a large portrait of Abe draped with black ribbon hung over a bank of green, white and yellow flowers. Nearby, a wall of photos showed him strolling with G7 leaders, holding hands with children and visiting disaster areas.
Tens of thousands of police will be deployed, nearby roads will be closed and even some schools shut as Japan seeks 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.
The state funeral for Abe, who received a private funeral days after his assassination, is the first since one in 1967 for former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.
Kishida has explained the decision as a way of honouring Abe's achievements, as well as standing up for democracy, but ordinary Japanese remain divided. Only 30% of respondents in a recent poll by TV Asahi agreed with hosting the funeral, against 54% opposed.
Even without the recent revelations, it would be hard to imagine any circumstances where a majority of Japanese would favour honouring Abe with a state funeral, said Tobias Harris, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the author of a biography of the former premier.
"He was someone who almost welcomed and invited controversy and saw his mission as overturning a long-standing consensus or set of consensuses" about how Japan was run, Harris said.
Many Japanese were "attached to the postwar regime that he wanted to overturn."
A senior official in the administration of US President Joe Biden, who accompanied Vice President Harris to Japan, told reporters he could not comment on Japanese opinions about the funeral.
"All we can say is that he was a great partner of the United States ... and the vice president is going to honour that legacy," he said on Monday.
Indian PM Narendra Modi meets Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida here and conveyed his deepest condolences over the sudden demise of former prime minister Shinzo Abe as he underlined the late Japanese leader's contributions in strengthening the bilateral partnership as well as his vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
Modi, who is here to attend the state funeral of Abe, met Kishida ahead of the ceremony and the two leaders renewed their commitment towards further strengthening the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, and in working together in the region and in various international groupings and institutions.
"I am feeling very sad about the sudden death of former premier Abe... He took Japan-India relations to a greater level and also expanded it in many areas," Modi, who shared a close friendship with the slain Japanese leader, said.
Modi recalled that when he visited Japan last time, he had a long conversation with Abe. "India is missing Shinzo Abe," he added.
Abe, 67, was shot dead while making a campaign speech on July 8 in the southern Japanese city of Nara.
On his part, Kishida thanked Prime Minister Modi for taking India-Japan ties to new heights and assured that he will continue to cooperate with him to realise the vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
Kishida visited India for the annual summit in March while Modi visited Japan for the Quad Leaders' Summit in May.
(With Reuters and PTI inputs)
