Tokyo: The leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and three other opposition parties refrained from attending the state funeral of the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The state funeral “failed to gain public understanding and consent and was held amid people strongly feeling odd, questioning (its legitimacy) and opposing it,” CDP chief Kenta Izumi said.

While offering his condolences to the family of Abe, who was shot to death during a stump speech in Nara in July, Izumi criticized that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s decision to hold the state funeral was made without involvement of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, and lacked legal grounds and standards.

“We will take up the issue during the extraordinary Diet session (to be convened Monday),” he said.

The CDP leadership team skipped the funeral, with Izumi watching the proceedings on television at party headquarters. Meanwhile, party lawmakers were free to decide for themselves whether to attend.

Among them, former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda went to the funeral and offered flowers.

Kazuo Shii, head of the Japanese Communist Party, joined a rally against the state funeral in front of the Diet building while the event was being held at the Nippon Budokan.

“The Kishida administration forcibly held the state funeral despite over 60 pct of the public voicing opposition,” he said. “We want to firmly protest this outrage.”

Joining the same rally, Mizuho Fukushima, Social Democratic Party chief, said, “Abe does not deserve a state funeral because he used national politics for his own gain.”

Meanwhile, the heads of the Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), the Democratic Party for the People, NHK Party and Sanseito were present at the funeral.

JIJI Press