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VP Ma'ruf to attend Abe’s funeral
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Members of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces pay silent tribute during a rehearsal for a state funeral for former prime minister Shinzo Abe outside Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
V
ice President Ma’ruf Amin and his wife Wury Ma’ruf Amin left for Tokyo on Sunday morning to attend the funeral of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, was shot and killed on July 8 while campaigning, and a publicly funded state funeral honoring him will be held on Tuesday.
Ma'ruf will be among some 700 foreign guests attending the funeral at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan Hall.
The Vice President left from Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in East Jakarta at around 8 a.m. along with aides, including chief of staff Ahmad Erani Yustika, vice presidential spokesperson Masduki Baidlowi and expert staff members Mohammad Nasir and Robikin Emhas, according to the Vice Presidential Secretariat’s website.
Aside from attending Abe’s state funeral, Ma'ruf is also expected to pay a courtesy call to Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio at the Akasaka Place on Monday to discuss strategic issues between the two countries and to attend a greeting occasion after the funeral.
The Vice President and his aides are scheduled to leave Japan and return to Jakarta on Wednesday morning.
Japan is implementing extensive security, as tens of thousands of police officers, including about 2,500 brought to the capital from across Japan, are deployed to boost security in Tokyo, according to local news as reported by Reuters. Officers and sniffer dogs have been ramping up antiterrorism patrols at major rail stations and Tokyo's Haneda Airport in recent days, according to the reports.
