A man set himself on fire near the Japanese prime minister’s office in Tokyo in an apparent protest over government plans to hold a state funeral for former leader Shinzo Abe later this month, Japanese media reported. TV Asahi said the man set himself on fire early Wednesday and was taken to hospital with burns all over his body. A police officer who tried to put out the flames was also injured. Kyodo news agency and other media said police were called to the scene at around 7am (2200 GMT) after reports that a man was “engulfed in flames”. A letter opposing Abe’s state funeral was found nearby, he added. Police, the prime minister’s office and the cabinet office declined to comment on the reports. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was killed while campaigning for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on July 8. A public funeral will be held in Tokyo on September 27, with around 6,000 people from Japan and overseas in attendance. But state funerals are rare in Japan and the decision was controversial. Recent polls show that more than half of the public is against the event. The opposition is partly linked to growing revelations of ties between the LDP and the controversial Unification Church. The suspect in Abe’s death said the organization bankrupted his mother and felt the former prime minister supported her. The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in the 1950s, and the LDP earlier this month said a survey showed nearly half of its 379 lawmakers had some form of interaction with an organization labeled a cult. While the Japanese public was narrowly in favor of a state funeral when it was announced, shortly after Abe’s death, opinion has shifted sharply, damaging support for current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. A Mainichi Daily poll conducted over the weekend put Kishida’s support at 29 percent, down six percentage points from late August – a level analysts say makes it difficult for a prime minister to have enough support to carry out his agenda. Support for the LDP fell 6 points to 23 percent, Mainichi said. Kishida has defended his decision repeatedly, but the vast majority of voters remain unconvinced, also questioning the need to hold such an expensive ceremony at a time of growing economic distress for many citizens. According to its latest estimates, the government expects to spend 1.65 billion yen ($11.5 million) on the event at Tokyo’s Budokan, a large venue for concerts and sporting events. World leaders, including US Vice President Kamala Harris and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, are among those expected to attend. Abe was Japan’s best-known politician and has remained a prominent public figure since stepping down for health reasons in 2020.
