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Reuters
Reuters
Politics
By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Trevor Hunnicutt

With flowers and a gun salute, Japan bids farewell to divisive Abe

Shinzo Abe Japan Issei Kato Fumio Kishida Kamala Harris Police Tokyo Unification Church
A portrait of Shinzo Abe hangs above the stage during the state funeral for Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe on September 27, 2022 at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Several current and former heads of state visited Japan for the state funeral of Abe, who was assassinated in July while campaigning on a street. Takashi Aoyama/Pool via REUTERS

With flowers, prayers and a 19-gun salute, Japan honoured slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday at the first state funeral for a former premier in 55 years - a ceremony that has become as controversial as he was in life.

The ceremony started at 2:00 p.m. (0500 GMT), with Abe's ashes carried into the Nippon Budokan Hall in central Tokyo by his widow, Akie, to music from a military band and the booms of the honour-guard salute, which echoed inside the hall.

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