Japan held a state funeral ceremony for the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday (27th) at 2:00 pm local time (1:00 pm Hong Kong time), with 1,390 members of the Self-Defense Forces including the a guard of honour, and approximately 4,300 dignitaries at home and abroad Waiting to be present; the police mobilized 20,000 people to maintain security, and hundreds of people gathered near the location to oppose the holding of a state funeral. When the carriage carrying Abe’s ashes arrived at the Nippon Budokan, where the state funeral was held, the Self-Defense Forces fired 19 cannons to pay their respects. Abe’s ashes were taken from his home at around 1:20pm, and 20 honor guards from the Self-Defense Forces joined to escort them at the location. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave a condolence speech at the ceremony.
According to the arrangement of the state funeral, the carriage carrying Abe’s ashes left his home in Tominoya, Tokyo, and 20 honor guards greeted him in front of the door. After arriving at the Budokan at 2 pm, Abe’s wife, Akie, holding the ashes and accompanied by Kishida entered the venue. The honor guard fired a “hanging cannon”. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroichi Matsuno, who served as vice-chairman of the funeral, gave the opening speech. Afterwards, the Japanese national anthem was played, followed by a minute’s silence, and a clip of Abe’s death, featuring Abe’s 10th anniversary of the Fukushima earthquake in 311. While playing the piano for blessings, as well as pictures of his political achievements during his time and meeting dignitaries from different countries.
Kishida, Speaker of the House of Representatives Hiroyuki Hosoda, Speaker of the Senate Hidehisa Otsuji, Chief of the Supreme Court Saburo Tokura, and former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga who was a friend delivered speeches in succession. In his speech, Kishida praised Abe’s contributions during his time in office and praised him as a brave person, and people in Japan and the world will miss Abe and his time in power; Yoshihide Suga choked as he delivered the speech, and Akie also lost. tears. As for the royal family, the Japanese Emperor Naruhito and his wife, and the supreme Emperor Akihito and his wife will send envoys to salute, and a total of seven members of the Qiu Xiao Palace, including the pro-emperor Wenren and’ to wife, attending the ceremony.
The Kudanzaka Park near Budokan was originally supposed to open to the public at 10:00 am, but due to the large number of people who arrived early, the opening time was pushed to 9:30. flowers, and flowers can still be prepared before 4:00 pm Of the 67 local governments in the country, 65 local governments, excluding Okinawa Prefecture and Kawasaki City, flew their flags at half-mast or hung flags in sympathy, he took 61 local government governors or mayors participated in the state funeral, while Okinawa, Shizuoka, Miyazaki, Nagano representatives from the prefecture, Sagamihara City and Shizuoka City will not attend for reasons such as disaster relief.
