Shinzo Abe: People flock to the funeral – “Thank you very much for your work” they shouted

Crowd today at his funeral Shinzo Abe who fell dead last Friday 8/7 at the age of 67 from gunshots during his speech.

Hundreds of Japanese had thronged Zojoji Temple, where a memorial service was held Monday afternoon and this morning before a private ceremony to pay tribute to the man who dominated Japan’s political life and was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.

The sidewalks were filled with people, flowers and flags, while the presence of the Police was strong as he approached the hearse with the body of the former prime minister.

Helicopters flew over the site of the ceremony, which was broadcast live on NHK television. Some bowed their heads in respect, others prayed, clapped or saluted. “Thank you very much for your work for our country!” shouted one of the assembled citizens repeatedly.

The funeral procession passed through the capital’s political center, the Nagakatacho district, where hundreds of citizens had lined up in front of the Parliament building, where Abe had entered as a youth MP in 1993 after the death of his father who was also a politician.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with a group of government ministers waited patiently in front of the building. As the hearse passed slowly, Kishida bowed his head, holding a wrapped Buddhist prayer rosary in his hand. Abe’s widow, Akie, also bowed her head from her passenger seat in the hearse.

58-year-old teacher Keiko Noumi went to lay flowers on the large photo frame of Abe that had been placed inside the temple grounds. “There was a sense of security when he was prime minister and in charge of the country. I was actually supporting him, so this is very unpleasant,” he says according to APE-MPE, citing Reuters and AFP.

“I can’t overcome my grief, so I came here to lay flowers and pray,” 41-year-old councilor Tsukasa Yokawa told AFP, describing Abe as “a great prime minister who did a lot to improve Japan’s presence” on the international stage. .

“It’s unacceptable,” comments Yuko Takehisa, 51, a nurse’s aide who lives in Kanagawa, near Tokyo. “More could have been done to prevent this,” he comments, noting that “nobody reported” the killer to the police despite allegations that he had tested a makeshift weapon before the attack.

Others were queuing outside the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party to leave something at the makeshift shrine that will be there until Friday. Party officials had come out of the offices to offer iced tea to citizens standing there in the heat.

Tribute from foreign leaders

Tributes have been paid by many foreign leaders with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken making a brief stop on his way to the US from Southeast Asia yesterday morning to offer his condolences.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai were also there as family friends.

About 2,000 messages of condolence arrived from countries all over the worldKyodo news agency reported.

French leader Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences in a video posted on the French presidency’s official Twitter account after visiting the Japanese embassy in Paris. “I remember all our meetings and collaborations, especially since my visit to Japan in 2019… I lost a friend. He served his country with great courage, with boldness,” Macron said.

Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old unemployed man, was identified by police as the man who killed Abe during his campaign speech in Nara on Friday.

Yamagami believed the former prime minister was promoting a religious group to which his mother had made a “huge donation”. The perpetrator himself told the police that his mother went bankrupt because of this donation.

Satoshi Ninoyu, the head of the National Public Security Commission, said at a press conference today that he has requested the formation of a team to investigate the security situation surrounding Abe’s assassination.