Japan honours former PM Shinzo Abe

Japan bids assassinated leader farewell amid anger over the cost of the state funeral and his party’s ties to the Unification Church.

Japan has bid farewell to assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a rare state funeral that divided the nation.

Some 4,000 mourners – including Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino, and the United States Vice President Kamala Harris – attended Tuesday’s ceremony for Abe, who was gunned down on July 8 while delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.

President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe also attended the funeral.

Japan has bid farewell to assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a rare state funeral that divided the nation.

Since then, Japanese media has reported extensively on how the church forcibly extracted exorbitant donations from its followers in the country.

An internal LDP survey had found that nearly half the governing party’s 379 national legislators also had ties with the church and affiliated groups. These range from attending the church’s events to receiving donations and accepting volunteers for election support.

Large groups of protesters marched through Tokyo, banging drums, shouting and holding signs that urged the funeral be scrapped.

Similar anti-Abe rallies happened across the country, a reflection of a deep resentment about honouring a man who critics say repeatedly tried to whitewash Japan's wartime atrocities, stir nationalist sentiment and engage in high-handed leadership.

(Agencies)