Japan honors ex-pm Shinzo Abe with flowers, prayers
Japan honoured former prime minister Shinzo Abe with flowers, prayers and a 19-gun salute on Tuesday at the country's first state funeral for a former prime minister in 55 years.
Abe's widow, Akie Abe, walked slowly into the Budokan hall venue with an urn containing her husband's ashes, placed in a wooden box and wrapped in a purple cloth with gold stripes.
Defence soldiers in white uniforms took ashes from Mr Abe's ashes and placed them on a pedestal filled with white and yellow chrysanthemum flowers and decorations.
The prime minister Fumio Kishida, along with other government representatives, made condolence speeches, followed by Akie Abe.
Hundreds of foreign dignitaries and 4,300 attendees included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Japan's Crown Prince Akishino and six other imperial family members were at the ceremony, but Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako weren't among them.
Hundreds of people carrying bouquets of flowers queued at public flower-laying stands at nearby Kudanzaka park hours before the ceremony took place.
Mr Abe was cremated in July after a private funeral at a Tokyo temple days after he was murdered while giving a campaign speech on a street in Nara, a city in western Japan.
Mr Kishida said that Japan's longest-serving postwar political leader deserved a state funeral, which was the first for an ex-premier since a ceremony for former PM Shigeru Yoshida in 1967.
The undemocratic decision to give Mr Abe the rare honour with imperial ties, the cost, and controversies about his and the ruling party's links to the ultra-conservative unification Church has fuelled controversy about the event.
Tokyo was under maximum security, with angry protests opposing the funeral, due to its US 11.5 million $17.7 million cost, which is to be borne by the state at a time of economic pain for ordinary citizens.
In one part of downtown Tokyo, protesters waved signs and chanted No State Funeral to the tune of a guitar.
Thousands of mourners flooded the funeral venue from early in the morning, forcing organizers to open the hall half an hour early.
Approximately 10,000 people had laid flowers and bowed in silent prayer before Mr Abe's picture, with far more waiting in three-hour long queues.
Inside the Budokan, better known as a concert venue, a large portrait of Mr Abe draped with black ribbon over a bank of green, white and yellow flowers.
Nearby, a wall of photos showed him walking with G 7 leaders, holding hands with children and visiting disaster areas.
A moment of silence was followed by a retrospective of Mr Abe's political life and speeches by leading ruling party figures, including Mr Kishida and Yoshihide Suga, Mr Kishida's predecessor as prime minister.
Ms Abe shed a tear before farewelling her late husband for the last time and leaving the hall.
Some 20,000 police were deployed, nearby roads were closed and even some schools shut down as Japan tried to escape the security blunders that led to Mr Abe's shooting with a homemade gun by a suspect who, police say, accused the Unification Church of impoverishing his family.
Fumio Kishida has explained the state funeral decision as a way of honouring Mr Abe's achievements, as well as standing up for democracy, but ordinary Japanese remain divided.
The chance to conduct diplomacy was cited as a reason for the funeral, and the prime minister spent Monday night and Tuesday morning in meetings with leaders.