Japan Eyeing 250 M. Yen for State Funeral for Abe

Tokyo, Aug. 25 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is planning to spend around 250 million yen to hold a state funeral for slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, officials said Thursday.

The government assumes that the funeral will take place at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward for about one hour on the afternoon of Sept. 27 and that some 6,400 people from inside and outside the country will attend.

The government is expected to decide at a cabinet meeting as early as Friday to use reserve funds for the event, according to the officials.

Based on a cabinet decision made in July, the state funeral, the second for a former Japanese prime minister since the end of World War II, will be held in a nonreligious manner, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida serving as the funeral director.

The upcoming funeral will be "simple and solemn," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno has said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]