Ryosuke Maeda
The state funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was held 81 days after his
untimely death on July 8th. This was a long time compared to the funerals of other former
prime ministers, such as Shigeru Yoshida and Eisaku Sato, whose funerals were held within
11 and 13 days of their deaths, respectively. During this time, Cabinet support dropped
rapidly as the former Unification Church issue erupted. While Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
may have hoped for intra-party harmony and successful condolence diplomacy with heads ofstate and government, his efforts to boost his popularity have completely failed.
In an era of polarization, it is difficult to mourn politicians through bipartisanconsensus. During his tenure as prime minister, Mr. Abe restrained himself from expressing
his conservative political beliefs to some extent and gave a certain amount of consideration to‘inclusion’, such as giving Tomomi Inada, who advocates for LGBT legislation, an important
position. However, he did not hesitate to accelerate division against political parties, media,and local authorities whom he saw as his enemies in issues such as security and nuclear policies.
From this point of view, in order to mourn his death through a national ceremony in a
democratic country (although it does not necessarily have to be a state funeral), it would havebeen more desirable for the government to build a consensus in the Diet to firmly reject theheinous act that occurred in the midst of the election, which is the cornerstone of democracy,
rather than try to honor a "great leader" who achieved the longest-running government inJapan’s history of constitutional politics.
The recent spread of assassinations in developed countries is characterized byideological hatred. For example, the UK Labor MP Jo Cox was attacked by a 'Britain First'activist before the vote to leave the EU, and Pim Fortuyn, who led a far-right party in theNetherlands, was also assassinated. This is different from the assassinations of political
opponents seen in local politics in some South-East Asian countries during the democratictransition, which is a political strategy aimed at winning elections and is "the ultimate electoralfraud" (by a political scientist, Go Kawanaka). While both types of violence involve attacks onpolitical figures, the former is motivated by a deep-seated distrust of electoral legitimacy anddemocracy itself.
The majority of (attempted) assassinations of politicians in modern Japan falls under
the category of the above-mentioned 'ideological hatred type', including the assassination of

Inajiro Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party at the time of his death in 1960. If wesee this as the first type of political assassination rooted in distrust of democracy, the second
type is the 'nationalist type', in which the attackers were enraged over corruption and collusion.
The League of Blood Incident in 1932, which targeted the business world, and the stabbing
death of Toru Hoshi in 1901, who controlled the Tokyo city administration, are examples ofthis type. With the exception of assassinations committed by independence movements in theJapanese colonies, most assassinations were carried out by civilian right-wingers, with very
few by left-wingers, and there were no assassinations committed by government agencies orpolitical opponents as recently seen in Russia. The assassination of Mr. Abe is difficult tocategorize because the motive of the attacker was strong personal revenge, but it could fallunder a variant of the first type.
In general, the pre-war Japanese public tended to sympathize with "violence out oftrue feelings". Even after the war, except for incidents like the Asanuma assassination, it isdifficult to say that people have seen the attacks on politicians as a crisis of democracy.
While the close relationship between the former Unification Church and the politicalworld has naturally provoked moral outrage, it would be a mistake to neglect public reflection
on the political assassination that occurred during the election period, which is the core issueof this incident. It is essential for the public to acknowledge that this violence is not about
evaluating Mr. Abe's merits or demerits, but is a threat to the very foundations ofrepresentative democracy. We must take on the task of repairing the distrust and divisions inpolitical society that enabled this to happen. Now that the state funeral is over, we must pay
close attention to the nature of the incident's core issue.