THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
August 23, 2022 at 19:13 JST
An online petition demands the cancellation of the planned state funeral for slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Captured from the website)
A new online petition is calling on the government to cancel the planned state funeral for slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following nationwide protests.
The petition was launched by 17 people, including Chizuko Ueno, a professor emerita at the University of Tokyo, Takeshi Nakajima, a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology, journalist Satoshi Kamata and critic Makoto Sataka.
“We are calling on the public to sign the petition to show solidarity with these citizens and their protests, and make the voices of other like-minded people heard,” read the petition, launched on Aug. 23 on Change.org.
The petition references protesters who oppose the Sept. 27 state funeral for Abe, who was gunned down on July 8 while giving a campaign speech in Nara.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has cited Abe’s tenure as the nation’s longest-serving leader as warranting a state funeral.
A civic group critical of Abe's position on revising Japan's pacifist Constitution is in charge of gathering signatures on the petition.
The group said it will disclose the number of signatures it collected on the petition in about one month from its launch.
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