The government decided during a Cabinet meeting on Aug. 26 to allot 250 million yen ($1.8 million) to fund a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The outlay will be made from the reserve fund, which can be used without Diet deliberations.

The sum does not include security and other expenses. The government has yet to present the entire scope of the expenditures.

We are left to wonder if Prime Minister Fumio Kishida intends to press ahead with the controversial plan without answering the mountain of questions, mending social rifts or dispelling the public distrust.

The prime minister should realize that he is coming under the exacting eyes of the public and should apply the brakes on himself.

After Kishida said last month that he was planning a state funeral for Abe, we called on him in our editorials to provide careful explanations on a number of issues.

Our concerns include why the rare form of ceremony should be chosen despite a lack of clear legal provisions for a state funeral and whether holding one would hinder free review of what Abe said and did.

One month has passed since, but Kishida has yet to fulfill his responsibility for explaining these issues or show a willingness to face up to the public. Questions are far from being settled and are only growing.

Surveys by media outlets have shown that public opinion is divided over the wisdom of holding a state funeral for Abe.

Negative opinions are coming to outnumber positive ones. It appears that the way Kishida continues to duck the issue is partly to blame.

A state funeral was held only once in the postwar period when former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida died 55 years ago. It has been customary in recent years for the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to hold a joint funeral when a former prime minister dies.

Abe was at the helm of Japan for a total of eight years and eight months, the longest in the country’s constitutional history. However, there is no agreed-upon evaluation of the policy measures he took.

Suspicions linger that Abe appropriated his administration for his personal interests in the scandals involving the Moritomo Gakuen and Kake educational institutions as well as over the tax-funded cherry blossom viewing parties.

It is also coming to light that Abe had deep ties with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the religious group commonly known as the Unification Church.

In one instance, he sent a video message of approval to a “friendly organization” of the church.

A former Upper House member, who said he was elected to the chamber in 2016 with the backing from the church’s side, said he asked Abe to arrange for similar support measures to help his re-election in 2022, only to be told that such an arrangement was difficult, so he gave up on running for a second term.

We are left to wonder what developments were taking place behind the scenes.

Kishida has pledged to ensure that severing ties with the religious group will be part of the LDP’s governance code and also to amplify check systems. If that is what he says, it appears all too natural that he also will have Abe’s ties investigated and elucidated through and through.

As long as he does not do so, Kishida’s verbal commitment to “wiping away the public distrust” sounds less than convincing.

While the government decided to make the funeral-related outlays from state coffers, it stopped short of giving Cabinet approval for a request to ask government ministries and agencies to express their condolences. A similar request was approved by the Cabinet concerning funerals held for former prime ministers.

The government was apparently afraid that such a request could fuel resentment against the state funeral.

The authorities should not be allowed to meddle in people’s personal choice and force them to mourn for Abe. Local governments and education boards across the nation, for example, should strictly refrain from urging schools under their jurisdiction to fly flags at half-staff. 

On this matter, too, Kishida should personally come forward to take the podium at the Diet to give full explanations on the government's stance.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 28