Govt to disclose total costs for Abe’s state funeral in bid for public understanding

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:17 JST, September 9, 2022

The government plans to disclose security and hospitality expenses for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state funeral as part of efforts to gain greater public understanding about the funeral.

The total expenses for the funeral are expected to be about ¥1.66 billion.

“We plan to present the final cost as soon as possible following a close examination of the expenses after the state funeral,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at the House of Councillors Rules and Administration Committee on Thursday.

He also stated that the ¥249.4 million for venue setup and other expenses will be paid from the reserve fund, while security and hospitality expenses will be covered from the fiscal 2022 budget.

Compared with previous funerals for former prime ministers held jointly by the Cabinet and the Liberal Democratic Party, such costs for Abe’s state funeral are said not to be a great amount.

The cost for the jointly held funeral of former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in 2020, excluding security and hospitality expenses, was nearly ¥200 million, with the number of invited attendees limited to about 1,400 amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

More than 190 delegations from overseas are slated to attend Abe’s funeral, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold a series of meetings with dignitaries from various countries.

The government decided to spend about ¥7.5 billion on preparations for the 2019 Group of 20 summit meeting in Osaka, where a number of foreign dignitaries visited Japan.

The total cost for the 2016 Group of Seven Ise-Shima Summit and G7 Hiroshima Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was about ¥23.1 billion, on a budgetary basis for the Foreign Ministry.