2023-07-08 22:33:42
Japan today recalled the figure of Shinzo Abe, one of its most influential contemporary leaders, one year following his assassination during a rally, an incident that shocked the country and focused on the creed known as the “Moon Sect” for being the reason for the alleged assassination, waiting to be tried.
Hundreds of Japanese came to pay tribute to Abe in the vicinity of the Zojoji Buddhist temple while a private ceremony was held in his memory this Saturday, which was attended by the current Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, relatives and friends of the former president and other personalities from politics and various spheres.
The longest-serving Japanese prime minister in office (2012-2020) died on July 8 last year following being shot during an electoral act in the middle of the street in the city of Nara, by a man who used a homemade weapon and who He said he held a grudge once morest Abe for his alleged ties to the Unification Church.
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MULTITUDINARY OFFERINGS
As happened following his death a year ago, when thousands of Japanese people came to present floral offerings in memory of the deceased politician in the same central Tokyo Buddhist temple while a private service was held inside, this Saturday many people came to pay homage to him.
Long lines of citizens waited next to the Zojoji temple, surrounded by a large police device, since before the access to deposit floral offerings in front of several portraits of Abe was opened at 1:00 p.m. local time (4:00 GMT).
Today is the third act dedicated to his memory, following the service officiated in this same temple a year ago and the state funeral on September 22 in the Tokyo Budokan pavilion. The previous two were also attended by foreign dignitaries.
“We mightn’t attend the state funeral, so we decided to come today mainly to express our gratitude for his work,” Nami Watanabe, a 48-year-old woman, told EFE.
“Seeing the photos of him here today, one year following his death, I felt a deep sadness once more,” says Mika Hanakoshi, 40.
“He was a true leader for Japan, who had his own ideas and was always looking to make a better country,” says Watanabe. “His political motto of his was to make Japan a beautiful country, and he worked to achieve that in the strictest sense,” adds Hanakoshi.
Abe “was a politician who was always looking to the future, with a very broad vision of history and the nation. He left many political achievements, and also pending tasks that it is our responsibility to assume, ”said Yoshihide Suga, who succeeded Abe as prime minister and preceded the current leader of the Executive, in statements to the state chain NHK.
In addition to the act in Tokyo, numerous citizens also came this Saturday to pay tribute to Abe next to the Nara station (western Japan), near the exact point where the politician was giving a campaign speech before being shot down.
A CONTROVERSIAL HERITAGE
Abe’s duration in office and Japan’s greater projection abroad under his successive terms make him one of the most relevant Japanese leaders in recent decades, although his conservative profile and various scandals and controversial policies also generated many detractors at the national level. domestic.
Added to this was the focus that his assassination placed on the Unification Church. The man arrested for his murder, Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, is awaiting trial and said he attacked Abe because of his grudge once morest the creed, which he accuses of bankrupting his family through donations. .
As a result of the event, the extensive and deep ties between this organization considered by some experts as a sect and the ruling party currently led by Kishida came to light, forcing the prime minister to carry out a “cleansing” of his formation following seeing how their public support ratings plummeted.
The Executive’s decision to hold a state funeral for Abe months following the private Buddhist ceremony also caused great controversy in the country.
The state event cost 1.2 billion yen (regarding 7.7 million euros) and was the second state funeral held in postwar Japan in honor of a former prime minister following the one dedicated to Shigeru Yoshida in 1967.
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