Photo/Illutration The hearse carrying the body of slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe passes in front of Zojoji temple in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on July 12. (Tetsuro Takehana)

The government is making arrangements to hold a state funeral for slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan Hall on Sept. 27, according to sources. 

The costs of the proceedings are expected to be fully covered with taxpayer money. Abe, the nation’s longest-serving prime minister whose tenure ran for eight years and eight months, was gunned down in Nara on July 8 while campaigning for the Upper House election.

The plan for the state ceremony is expected to receive Cabinet approval as early as July 22.  

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a July 20 news conference that a state function is appropriate, given Abe’s record tenure, achievements in diplomacy and numerous tributes offered in and out of Japan following his death.

It would be the first state funeral for a former prime minister since 1967 when Shigeru Yoshida was accorded that honor. Yoshida, a key architect of postwar Japan, held office from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954.

It has been customary for such funerals to be a joint effort by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Cabinet since the one in 1980 for Masayoshi Ohira, who held power from 1978 to 1980.

The 1975 funeral for Eisaku Sato, who served as prime minister for seven years and eight months, the second longest record after Abe, was jointly held by the government, the LDP and volunteers from the general public with state funds injected to shoulder part of the cost.

Abe’s family funeral was held at Zojoji temple in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on July 12 with many LDP officials attending.

An altar for flowers installed for mourners from the public in Nara at the site of Abe’s slaying was removed July 18.



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