TOKYO –
A man set himself on fire near the Japanese prime minister’s office on Wednesday in an apparent protest over the government’s decision to hold a state funeral for former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated earlier this year, media reported. .
The man was taken to hospital with burns all over his body, while a policeman who was trying to extinguish the flames was also injured.
The man, in his 70s, was unconscious when he was first found but later told police he had deliberately doused himself with oil, media said. Nearby was a letter about Abe’s state funeral and the words “I strongly object.”
Police refused to confirm the incident, which took place on what would have been Abe’s 68th birthday.
“I heard that the police found a man who had suffered burns near the government offices, and I know that the police are investigating,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister who resigned in 2020 citing ill health, was shot dead at a campaign rally on July 8. His state funeral is scheduled for September 27, with the participation of about 6,000 people from Japan and abroad.
Opposition to the event has been growing due to revelations after Abe’s assassination of links between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which he was a powerful member, and the controversial Unification Church. The suspect in Abe’s death said the church bankrupted her mother and felt the former prime minister supported her.
Links to the Unification Church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s, have become a major problem for current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the LDP since they emerged after Abe’s assassination. Earlier this month, the LDP said a survey showed almost half of the 379 LDP lawmakers had some kind of interaction with the church.
Public opinion was narrowly in favor of a state funeral at the time it was announced, shortly after Abe’s death, but opinion has changed dramatically.
Numerous polls show that most Japanese now oppose the ceremony, which helped Kishida’s support plummet. A Mainichi Daily poll taken over the weekend showed his support at 29%, down six percentage points from late August, a level that 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%, Mainichi said.
Kishida has repeatedly defended his decision, but the vast majority of voters remain unconvinced and also question the need for such an expensive ceremony at a time of mounting economic pain for ordinary citizens.
The government’s latest cost estimate is 1.65 billion yen ($12 million), which includes security and receptions.
In 2014, two men set themselves on fire in separate incidents protesting Japan’s move away from post-war pacifism under the Abe administration. One of the men died.
(Reporting by Mariko Katsumura, Kaori Kaneko, and Elaine Lies; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Richard Pullin)