Japan holds funeral for Shinzo Abe, awards nation's highest decoration

Hundreds of people filled the streets of Tokyo as they laid their former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to rest on Tuesday and gave him the nation's highest decoration, days after he was assassinated.

Last Friday, the country’s longest-serving prime minister was shot in the chest during a speech in the western city of Nara, ahead of last Sunday’s elections for the upper house of parliament. Abe, 67, was one of Japan’s longest-serving leaders before leaving his post in 2020. 

Hundreds of people were lined outside Tokyo’s Zojoji temple to bid their final farewell to their former prime minister. Mourners, most dressed in formal black suits, waved and called bout “Abe-san!” as a motorcade moved through the streets with his body. 

The motorcade made a tour of Tokyo’s main political quarters of Nagatacho, where Abe spent most of his time after he was first elected in 1991. Outside the building, party lawmakers in suits stood outside and prayed. 

Friday: Shinzo Abe was fatally shot in Nara

Saturday: His body was returned to his residence in Shibuya, Tokyo

Monday: His casket arrived at Zojoji Temple and the wake began

Tuesday: Funeral service attended by members of Abe's family and close contacts pic.twitter.com/3RjmbdWMsC

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Once inside the temple, only a select few were allowed to attend the funeral, including his wife, close family members, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, senior party members, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The Japanese government honored Abe with the nation’s highest decoration by giving him the Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. Abe is the fourth former prime minister to receive the decoration made of gold and usually worn by the emperor. Additionally, he was honored with the Junior First Rank of Court, according to the Cabinet Office. 

On Sunday, Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition won the elections in a landslide victory, allowing the current party to stay in power until 2025. The coalition won 87 of the 125 seats in the contested Upper House of parliament. 

Abe’s assassination caused turmoil in the country known as one of the world’s safest. Japan has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

Abe’s alleged assassin, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami of Nara City, made the gun with which he killed the former prime minister. Police found several other makeshift firearms in his house after a raid.