Cabinet has approved event for 27 September but critics question cost and possible political exploitation

Opposition is mounting to plans to hold a state funeral for the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead earlier this month.

The cabinet on Friday approved arrangements for the funeral – only the second of its kind for a former Japanese leader in the postwar period – on 27 September.

Members of the public pay their respects to former prime minister outside Buddhist temple

Family and friends of Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have attended his funeral at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo while members of the public paid their respects outside, four days after he was shot dead while making a campaign speech.

Mourners in black suits and dresses gathered at Zojoji temple for the private funeral service, while police officers monitored onlookers, some holding bunches of flowers, who had braved the early afternoon heat.

Tetsuya Yamagami’s mother attends meetings, says Unification church, after he told investigators of grudge

The mother of the man accused of assassinating Shinzo Abe is a member of the Unification church, which the suspect has cited as a motive for his fatal shooting of the former Japanese prime minister last week.

The church, whose members are colloquially known as Moonies, confirmed at a press conference on Monday that the mother of Tetsuya Yamagami, who was detained moments after he shot Abe from behind during an election campaign speech on Friday, attends meetings about once a month.

Exit polls show LDP retaining power with comfortable election victory as country mourns

Japan’s ruling party has won a comfortable victory in elections overshadowed by the assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Exit polls showed that the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which Abe led until he resigned in 2020, had secured more than half the 125 seats being contested in the 248-seat upper house.

Police pledge thorough investigation into security flaws as polls open for upper house elections amid increased police presence

Police in Japan have admitted there were “problems” with security for Shinzo Abe, as voters went to the polls for upper house elections two days after the former prime minister was assassinated on the campaign trail.

The head of police in the Nara region where Abe was killed admitted on Saturday that there were “undeniable” flaws in security for the former leader.

Police believe attacker bore grudge against Abe as some critics question level of security surrounding Japan’s longest-serving PM

• Shinzo Abe – a life in pictures

Sorrow and disbelief descended on Japan after Shinzo Abe – the former prime minister and a towering political figure – was shot dead while giving a campaign speech on Friday morning.

Abe, 67, was pronounced dead early in the evening, prompting a flood of tributes from current and former world leaders, and anger that a politician could be gunned down in broad daylight in one of the world’s safest societies two days before an election.

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• Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, dies after being shot
• A loss for the world’: leaders unite in condemning assassination

Japan has close to “zero-tolerance” of gun ownership – an approach that experts say contributes to its extremely low rate of gun crime. There were six reported gun deaths in Japan in 2014, according to the National Police Agency, and the number rarely exceeds 10, in a country of 126 million people. In 2006, just two people were killed in gun attacks.

The 1958 law on the possession of swords and firearms states: “No one shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords.”

Among the few exceptions are shotguns for hunting and sport. Even then, prospective owners must attend classes and pass written and practical exams. They must then undergo psychological assessments to determine they are fit to own a firearm. Police background checks are exhaustive and even involve questioning the gun owners’ relatives.

Civilian ownership of handguns is banned. The few violations reported in the media usually involve members of the country’s yakuza crime syndicates. According to police, there were 21 arrests for the use of firearms in 2020, with 12 of them gang-related, Nikkei Asia reported.

Here is some further reaction from Australia.

US praises former Japanese leader’s ‘great vision’, while Iran calls shooting an ‘act of terrorism’

From Washington to Tehran, Seoul to Kyiv, political leaders around the world have condemned the assassination of the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and paid tribute to the country’s longest-serving leader.

Abe was shot while campaigning for parliamentary elections, and died in hospital several hours later. The US president, Joe Biden, said he was “stunned, outraged and deeply saddened” by the killing. “This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him,” he said. “Even at the moment he was attacked, he was engaged in the work of democracy.”