Japan expects to spend around 1.7 billion yen ($12 million) on a state funeral for assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the government said on Tuesday, despite controversy over the plan.
Abe was shot dead while campaigning in July, and the government is expecting dozens of current and former leaders to offer their condolences at the Sept. 27 service in Tokyo.
However, recent polls show that about half of Japanese voters oppose the publicly funded event.
Security is expected to cost around 800 million yen, with another 600 million to be spent on hosting and 250 million on the ceremony, top government spokesman Hirozaku Matsuno said Tuesday.
“Delegates from more than 190 overseas (countries and regions) are likely to attend,” he told reporters at a regular briefing.
The funeral will be held at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, a venue for concerts and sporting events that also hosted Japan’s last state funeral for a former prime minister, in 1967.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the national and international achievements of Abe, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, made a state ceremony appropriate.
But state funerals for former politicians are rare in Japan, and a weekend poll published by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper on Monday showed 56 percent of voters opposed the event, while 38 percent supported it.
Other recent polls have shown similar levels of opposition, and Kishida has stated that he is ready to answer questions in Parliament on the matter.
His government’s approval ratings have taken a tumble in recent weeks, in part due to the funeral decision.
Some opponents oppose spending public money on an event honoring a politician, while others believe a state funeral is effective in enforcing public mourning or minimizing Abe’s nationalist views and alleged links to nepotism.
Abe’s accused killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, who is in custody, targeted the former leader because he believed he was affiliated with the Unification Church.
Yamagami’s mother reportedly made large donations to the church, which her son blamed for the family’s financial difficulties.
Shortly after his death, a small private funeral was held for Abe at a Tokyo temple, with thousands of people gathering outside to lay flowers and pay their respects.
