Japan Limits Attendance At Abe's Funeral To 6,000 People - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2022) Tokyo has limited the number of people who can attend the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, scheduled for September 27, to 6,000 people, including several hundred foreign delegations, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday, citing sources.

Japan's Foreign Ministry notified 195 countries, four regions and 80 international organizations of the date of the funeral and expects up to three representatives from each country and two from each organization to attend. The Japanese government plans to finalize the guest list by early September, according to Nikkei.

Many foreign leaders have expressed their interest in attending the funeral, including former US Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Foreign countries will pay the travel costs for their own representatives, the newspaper said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in July that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not planning to travel to Japan to attend Abe's funeral and the level of Russia's participation would be determined at a later date.

Abe's funeral on September 27 will be the second state funeral for a former prime minister since World War II.

The first one was held in 1967 for Shigeru Yoshida. Other prime ministers received a joint Cabinet Office and Liberal Democratic Party service.

Abe was attacked on July 8 in the Japanese city of Nara during a campaign speech. His killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, approached the politician from behind and fired two shots from a distance of about 10 meters (33 feet). Police said Abe was conscious immediately after being wounded, but then, during transportation, his condition became critical "with cardiac and pulmonary arrest." Later in the day, the Nara Medical University hospital pronounced him dead. Abe was 67. His funeral and cremation took place on July 12.

The killer said that his mother joined a religious group known as the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon and went bankrupt, destroying the family, after donating large sums to the group. The donations totaled 100 million Yen ($1,000,000 at the time) from the sale of land and property. Last year, Abe sent a welcome message to an organization connected to the Unification Church, which, according to the killer, made the former prime minister connected to the religious group. The Church denies any connection with the former prime minister, since he was not a member and did not make donations.