About 700 international guests to attend Abe’s state funeral

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:44 JST, September 21, 2022

About 700 guests from overseas are expected to attend former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state funeral on Sept. 27 at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, according to a government official.

More than 190 foreign delegations are expected, with around 50 led by top-level officials. In total, about 6,000 guests are expected to attend.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the government had sent invitations to about 2,000 current and former lawmakers, about 300 local government officials and about 30 current and former heads of the three branches of government, including presidents of both chambers of the Diet.

Matsuno said the government had not yet confirmed a final tally for the number of international guests. “We’ll announce [the number] in a timely and appropriate manner,” he said.