Japan to hold autumn state funeral for Shinzo Abe

Tokyo, Jul 14 (EFE).- Japan will hold a state funeral in the autumn for former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated last week during an election rally, the government said Thursday.

A private funeral for Abe’s family and close friends was held at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo this week but the state commemoration will take place after the summer. The date is yet to be determined, the government said.

“The wake will show our mourning of his death as well as our determination to defend our democracy, without violence,” Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference.

Abe’s state funeral will be the first of its kind in over 50 years. The last time Japan held a state funeral for a former prime minister was in 1967 for Shigeru Yoshida, who was in office from 1946 to 1954.

Abe, Japan’s longest serving prime minister, died on July 8 after being shot by a man with a homemade weapon while giving a stump speech at a campaign event for parliamentary elections in the western city of Nara.

He was rushed to a hospital with injuries to his chest and neck that caused him to go into cardio-respiratory arrest, and died about five-and-a-half hours later from bleeding caused by injuries to his arteries and heart, according to medical services.

The alleged shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, was arrested immediately after allegedly shooting Abe. EFE

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