Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Opposition to the proposed state funeral of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been growing in Japan and on Wednesday over 4,000 people demonstrated near the Diet building to make their opposition known.

In addition to student leaders, several political figures gave their support to Wednesday’s rally, including Communist leader Akira Koike and representatives of the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party.

Opposition leaders are pressuring Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio to answer questions in the Diet about the state funeral.

Many of the protesters said they were worried about the influence of the Unification Church in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Abe was shot by a man who had a grudge against the cult and who resented Abe’s public support for the group.

“I believe people’s trust in politics has been shaken because of issues such as the Unification Church and the state funeral,” Kishida admitted on Wednesday.

A young protester told Arab News that despite Kishida’s apology at a press conference on Wednesday, many parliamentarians still had close connections to the Unification Church.

Other protesters said Abe’s legacy hardly merited a state funeral, citing his historical revisionism and plans to change Japan’s Peace Constitution.

Demonstrators displayed banners calling for a halt to the holding of the state funeral scheduled to take place at the end of September due to the cost to Japanese taxpayers.

According to parliamentary reports, the state funeral could cost nearly $2 million.