With prayers, flowers, and flags wrapped in black ribbons, Japan bid farewell to Shinzo Abe on Tuesday, a polarizing figure who dominated politics as the country’s longest-serving prime minister, before being shot dead at a campaign rally last week. Amid heavy police presence, men in black jackets and women in black clothing entered the Zojoji Temple in central Tokyo for the private funeral ceremony, while crowds lined the nearby streets in the sweltering summer heat. Hundreds gathered at the temple on Monday evening to pay their respects to Abe, who died at the age of 67. His killing on Friday by an unemployed man using a homemade gun caused shock in a country where gun crime and political violence are rare.
The ceremony, scheduled for 1:00 PM local time (04:00 GMT), was closed to the media and limited to family and close friends. Long lines of citizens dressed in black formed early in the morning, mingling with others in casual clothing outside the temple. Kiko Nomi, a 58-year-old teacher, was among many who came to pray and lay flowers in front of a large picture of Abe inside the temple grounds showing him laughing and wearing a white shirt. She said, "There was a sense of security when he was the prime minister in charge of the country," adding, "I really supported him, so this is very unfortunate."
Others lined up in front of the headquarters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Tributes poured in from international leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who made a brief stop on his way back to the United States from Southeast Asia to offer condolences, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also joining the mourners. Kyodo News reported that nearly 2,000 condolence messages had come from countries around the world. French President Emmanuel Macron sent his condolences in a video posted on the official presidential Twitter account after visiting the Japanese embassy in Paris. According to investigators, the assailant, who was arrested at the scene and identified by police as Tetsuya Yamagami (41), believed Abe was promoting a religious group to which his mother had made "a large donation."
