At the Budokan arena in central Tokyo, a state funeral is underway for Shinzo Abe , the former Japanese premier who was killed in Nara during a rally on 8 July.
There are more than 700 foreign guests at the ceremony, including about fifty state leaders. There is a large deployment of the security forces, about a thousand soldiers are operational.
The prime minister , Fumio Kishida, took over the ashes contained in a box to give to the military officers who placed them in the center of the room.
Outside, meanwhile, there are groups of demonstrators protesting because they are against the state funeral and have gathered outside the arena to express their dissent. In particular , they criticize the cost of the whole organization which would be around 1.67 million yen, about 11.4 million dollars.
Foreign leaders include United States Vice President Kamala Harris, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc , South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Vice President of the Philippines Sara Duterte-Carpio, European Council President Charles Michel.
(Unioneonline / ss)
PICTURES:
All'arena Budokan di Tokyo il funerale di Stato di Shinzo Abe, l'ex premier giapponese ucciso a luglio