Shinzo Abe funeral: Hundreds of global representatives are attending the funeral of Japan's longest serving prime minister.

Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot dead during a campaign speech in Nara in July, stunning a nation where gun violence is extremely rare.

More than 4,300 guests are expected to attend the service at the Nippon Budokan Arena in Tokyo, including foreign dignitaries such as US Vice President Kamala Harris and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hundreds of global representatives and thousands of attendees congregated in Tokyo to pay last respects to the Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.

Other government figures including former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga – who was Abe’s right hand man for many years – also gave remarks, before attendees laid flower offerings and bowed in turn.

On Tuesday morning, crowds of people lined up outside designated memorial sites to leave flowers and pay their final respects to Abe, who dominated Japanese politics for a generation.

Shinzo Abe was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history.

Abe was born into a prominent political family in Tokyo and was the grandson of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. After graduating from Seikei University and briefly attending the University of Southern California, Abe was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1993 election.