Shaken Japan bids goodbye to slain ex-leader

TOKYO — Japanese bid their final goodbye to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday as his funeral was held at a temple days after his assassination shocked the nation.

Abe, the country’s longestserving prime minister, remained influential even after stepping down two years ago for health reasons. He was gunned down Friday during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.

Hundreds of people filled sidewalks outside Zojoji temple in downtown Tokyo to bid farewell to Abe, whose nationalistic views drove the governing party’s conservative policies.

Mourners took photos and some called out “Abe san!” as a motorcade with the hearse carrying his body accompanied by his widow, Akie Abe, slowly drove by the packed crowd.

“I believe there were many things he left unfinished as a politician,” public broadcaster NHK quoted Akie Abe as saying. “But he planted many seeds and I’m sure they will sprout.”

Abe’s longtime ally and mentor, Finance Minister Taro Aso, described him as “the most talented politician in postwar Japan who raised Japan’s international profile.”

About 1,000 people, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, governing party leaders and foreign officials, attended the funeral at the temple.

Abe’s assassination has shaken Japan, one of the world’s safest nations with some of the strictest gun laws.

The suspect, Tetsyua Yamagami, was arrested on the spot Friday and is being held at a local prosecutors’ office for further investigation. They can detain him for up to three weeks while deciding whether to formally press charges.

Police said Yamagami cited a rumored link between Abe and an organization the suspect hated as the motive for the killing. Media reports said the organization was the Unification Church and that Yamagami disliked it because donations made by his mother to the group had bankrupted his family.

Police this week inspected a building related to the church in Nara after the suspect told investigators that he had test-fired a homemade gun there the day before the assassination.

On Tuesday, National Police Agency chief Itaru Nakamura said police failed to fulfill their responsibility to protect Abe. “I feel deep regret and shame,” he said. He told reporters that the agency will set up a task force to review guarding procedures.