This means that Shinzo Abe will become the second person in Japan to enjoy "state funeral" treatment after the war. The Japanese government said on September 6 that the additional cost required for "state funeral" is about 1.4 billion yen.

On September 27, the "state funeral" of Abe Shinzo will be held at Japan Budou Hall in Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo.

This means that Shinzo Abe will become the second person in Japan to enjoy "state funeral" treatment after the war.

The Japanese government said on September 6 that the additional cost required for "state funeral" is about 1.4 billion yen (about 69 million yuan). The additional costs of the 1.4 billion yen announced include 800 million yen for security fees and 600 million yen for reception from foreigners.

plus venue layout fees, etc., the total amount will reach about 1.66 billion yen (about 82 million yuan).

As soon as this news came out, the Japanese people who were already dissatisfied with the "state funeral" of Abe are even more annoyed.

Why are so many Japanese people opposed holding a "state funeral" for Abe?

What kind of history is hidden behind the word "state funeral"? It also indicates where Japan will go in the future?

1

In fact, after Abe was assassinated on July 8, Prime Minister Kishida had considered holding a state funeral for him, but Mrs. Abe's wife, Ms. Akie, declined for the reasons of "reducing the concentration of people under the epidemic", and held a family funeral at Zengshangji Temple in Tokyo on July 11 and 12. At that time, it was widely speculated that the state funeral would not be held.

However, on the evening of July 14, Kisha Fumio officially announced at a press conference that it would hold a state funeral for Abe, and the expenses for the state funeral will be entirely borne by the Japanese government.

As soon as this news came out, Japan was in an uproar and many people immediately expressed their opposition.

On August 22, 17 Japanese writers and university professors, including Ueno Chizuko , held a press conference to criticize the government for holding Abe's "state funeral" for violating the Constitution's spirit of "equality for everyone and freedom of thought".

htmlOn August 31, thousands of people protested in front of the main entrance of the Japanese Congress Hall, saying that "the decision was not passed by the Congress and was not discussed" and "oppose state funerals, don't use my taxes."

On September 1, 345 plaintiffs filed additional lawsuits in the Tokyo District Court, demanding that the Japanese government stop holding "state funerals" for Abe. This is also the first time that a Japanese citizen group has filed a formal administrative lawsuit on this issue.

At present, the number of plaintiffs in the lawsuit has reached 576.

In addition, other citizen groups filed similar lawsuits in local courts in Saitama , Yokohama , Osaka and other places. There have also been a trend of lawyers and local councillors asking citizens to supervise, requiring local governments to prohibit the use of public funds to spend "state funeral" related expenses.

The Japanese people objected so much, and the high "state funeral" fee of 1.66 billion yen is an important reason - the "state funeral" funeral fee is paid in full by the government, using taxes paid by the citizens.

As Japanese netizens said, "I clearly said 200 million yen before. If the increased costs are borne by the members of the Liberal Democratic Party , no one will complain."

You should know that the yen has plummeted and Japan's overall economy is sluggish. It is no wonder that the Kishida government has invested taxpayers' money in the funeral so extravagantly.

Another important reason for the public's controversy is that Abe has too close relationship with the "Unified Church".

After Abe was assassinated, the people were very sensitive to the infiltration of "Unified Church" into Japanese politics. The relationship between Abe and the "Unified Church" has also made many people worry about "leakage of national defense secrets."

, and some people and opposition parties also questioned Kishida's "state funeral" and "no legal basis" and required "explanation of the total amount of the expenses".

not only does not be optimistic internally, but international response to Abe's "state funeral" also responded mediocrely.

The Japanese government has sent invitations to 195 diplomatic countries to participate in Abe's "state funeral". But news that some foreign politicians were unable to participate came one after another.

Previously, US President Biden , French President Macron , and former German Prime Minister Merkel , who are considering visiting Japan, all said they would not attend.

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously said that "we hope that all countries and regions will give replies before mid-August", but "National Hyundai" pointed out that it is September and many countries have not responded.

In the words of a professor of international politics at Takachiho University, "Even former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been in office for the longest time in G7, did not come. It is really surprising. Although the heads of countries expressed their condolences, they also believed that it was not worth attending the state funeral."

As the funeral approaches, Japan's support for Kishida continues to decline.

In early September, Kishida Cabinet 's support rate fell to 48.1%, down 9.4 percentage points from August, and the first time that the cabinet was formed in October last year fell below 50%. Polls conducted by

html on 10 and 11 showed that Kishida's approval rating dropped to 41%, and the disapproval rate rose from 39% last time to 47%, close to half. This is also the first time that the disapproval rate has exceeded the approval rate.

This is not unrelated to the Kishida government's ignoring the public's opinions and insisting on holding "state funerals".

As the voices of opposing "state funeral" in Japan are getting louder and louder, under pressure, on September 8, Fumio Kishida finally explained the relevant issues in Congress for the first time. This is also the first congressional debate around "state funeral".

Kisha said she accepted the criticism, but insisted that "state funeral is appropriate." He cited four major reasons for holding a state funeral for Abe, including that Abe is the longest-government prime minister in Japan's constitutional history, Abe left many political achievements, many countries expressed condolences, and Abe was shot and killed while assisting the election. Therefore, it is necessary for the country (government) to show an attitude of protecting democracy.

However, the reasons given by Kishida have set off a new round of doubts.

For example, the chairman of the Cadet-Democratic Party, the largest opposition party, Kenta Quan, questioned the legal basis for holding state funerals and the properness of cost estimates, saying that the government's decision to hold state funerals was wrong, but forced to handle it.

At the same time, the Constitutional Democratic Party demanded that the state funeral be changed to " Cabinet Funeral", and the relationship between Abe and South Korea's "unified religion" was investigated.

However, Kishida government believes that there are less than 3 weeks left before the date of state funeral, and it is difficult to adjust the way of holding the funeral, and plans to advance the preparations as planned.

It is estimated that the debate on the "state funeral" will continue.

2

State funeral, as the name suggests, is a funeral held in the name of the country for people with special merits.

In the past, there was a custom of holding grand funerals after the emperor died in Japan, and the name "state funeral" was officially used since the Meiji era.

According to the provisions of the "State Funeral Order" of Japan before World War II , the people who can enjoy state funeral treatment were basically those who thought the Japanese government at that time believed that it had made "great contributions" to Japan. Before the war, only the royal family, duke, marshal and prime minister could enjoy state funeral treatment.

In 1947, Japan abolished the State Funeral Order after World War II, and there has been no legal basis for state funeral since then.

This is also why many people oppose Abe's "state funeral" on the grounds that there is no legal basis.

However, in 1967, the then Prime Minister of Japan, held a state funeral for Yoshida Shigeru, who was the prime minister at the time, and the former Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru , "makes important contributions to the restoration of democratization and economic recovery after World War II." This is also the only person in Japan who enjoys state funeral treatment since World War II.

At that time, Shigeru Yoshida's funeral cost totaled 18.1 million yen, which is about 100 million yen (about 4.86 million yuan).

What is the scale of the state funeral?

According to the "Records of the Funeral Ceremony of the Deceased Shigeru Yoshida" compiled by the government, from his residence in Oiso-cho, Kanagawa Prefecture to the Japanese Budokan, about 120,000 people watched hearse carrying urns along the way, and about 5,700 police officers from the prefectural police and the Metropolitan Police Department participated in the security work.

The attending the funeral were not only the royal family members such as the Crown Prince and his wife (now the Emperor and his wife), but also diplomatic envoys from 72 countries. There is also the 19th mourning cannon from the Japanese Self-Defense Force "resounds through the autumn sky." The riot police were responsible for guiding a team of about 35,000 flower donors. "exploded several invisible painstaking efforts" and did not cause any major trouble in the end.

But when Sato died, he wanted to follow the state funeral, which was opposed by many people in Japan, saying that there is no legal basis and it should be discussed by the Congress, and the legislation, justice and administration should be decided together. , so Sato's state funeral was not done, and he only once " National Burial HTML " .

"National Burial" is different from "state funeral" in that the Japanese government only bears most of the funeral expenses, and some of the expenses also require the family members or the party to which the deceased belongs.

In addition, there is also "Cabinet·LDP joint funeral", such as Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira , Nakasone Yasuhiro , etc., all enjoy the Cabinet·LDP joint funeral treatment. This is also the specification that the opposition party believes that Abe's funeral should belong to.

However, after about 55 years, the state funeral was once again pushed into the historical stage.

It is said that Abe's state funeral will be held in the form of "religious" at 2 pm on the 27th. The attendees will be heads of the Senate and House of Representatives and governments, members of Congress, foreign politicians, local governments, and representatives from various fields, with an estimated number of up to 6,000 people.

In addition, from 10 am to 4 pm on the day of the state funeral, a flower dedication platform was set up outside the Japanese martial arts hall. The previous state funeral standards will be used, and the Self-Defense Force will fire 19 cannons to mourn. Provincial and departments will also hang mourning flags on the funeral day to observe silence.

However, when the inside and outside are not optimistic, it is still unknown how the response of Abe's state funeral on the 27th...

3

The state funeral can be said to be one of the most difficult problems in Japanese politics at present. Some international relations scholars told "Put it One Dao" that Kishida Fumio's current state on the issue of state funeral is to be in a dilemma and be in a difficult situation.

Kishida's decision, on the one hand, takes into account its own support rate, and also consolidates the basic foundation and gathers the Abe MPs in the Liberal Democratic Party's faction.

On the other hand, as the former foreign minister of Abe's cabinet , Kishida hopes to follow Abe's route in diplomacy, and also hopes to continue to promote Abe's route through state funeral. also shows that he is an important heir to Abe.

As for the reasons Kishida himself explained for the "state funeral" in parliament, saying that Abe is the longest-time prime minister in Japan's constitutional history and has made great contributions to Japan's economic revitalization, not many people paid the bill, but instead made more people question it.

The opposition party clearly stated that it was said that it was the longest in power, and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato was also the longest in power at that time. In terms of contributions, Sato Eizaki took back Okinawa and also proposed the " Nuclear-free Three Principles " that does not manufacture, own or transport it into nuclear weapons, and won the Nobel Peace Prize . What's more, Japan's economy was developing much better than it is now, and it was a period of rapid growth.

However, since there was no unified opinion in Japan at that time, Sato Eisaku had no state funeral.

Compared with this, Abe is a controversial person and has no legal basis. It is inappropriate to do state funerals like this now. , and Shinzo Abe has a relationship with the Unified Sect. He is also involved in the relationship between the Unified Sect and the unified Sect.

So, in the long-term connection between this "cult" and Japanese politics, the Japanese also felt why they should give him a state funeral.

Kisha government on the one hand said that the Liberal Democratic Party should break away from the Unified Church, and on the other hand, it should give Abe family a state funeral, which is related to the Unified Church. Isn’t this a contradiction?

Now " Abe Economics " has not made the people's lives better: prices rise, uneven wealth and poor, and substantial income declines, all of which are left by Abe. The development of a new capitalist economy has not solved these problems.

From the perspective of view, what the opposition party said makes sense, and Kishida's explanation is very weak . Kishida wanted to cut off the Liberal Democratic Party and the Unified Church and won support, but it was logically unreasonable to whitewash the Abe family and hold state funerals.

Experts pointed out that a democratic country must first consider public opinion, and Kishida also said that it should listen to public opinion. But the people are unwilling to include the people, which is a trampling on democracy.So now several political parties in Japan, such as the Communist Party of Japan, the new selection group of and , and the Social Democratic Party , have refused to participate in state funerals.

Japan sent invitations to more than 100 countries and regions around the world, and now there are less than 10 people who have really returned.

Kita intends to engage in funeral diplomacy or condolence diplomacy through state funeral funeral, in an attempt to demonstrate the correctness of Abe's line, in order to continue to promote the so-called "free and open Indo-Pacific".

column editor: Gu Wanquan Text editor: Cao Fei Title picture source: Visual China Picture editor: Su Wei

Source: Author: Bu Yidao / Jiumingdao Water Breaker