Attendance at the funeral is limited to family members and people who were close to the former leader, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported. Outside the temple, mourners line the street paying their respects.People have also gathered and placed flowers at a makeshift memorial in Nara, near the location where Abe was fatally shot on Friday.
Shinzo Abe was the longest serving prime minister in Japanese history. He served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020.
On 8 July 2022, Abe was assassinated by a former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force sailor, Tetsuya Yamagami, while delivering a campaign speech in support of candidates from his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ahead of the 10 July election. The suspect is said to have targeted Abe because of perceived ties with the Unification Church. Yamagami told Japanese police his mother was a member of a religious organisation and their family had been financially ruined after she made a “huge donation” Japanese media reported.
