Cost of Abe's state funeral to total over 1.6 bil. yen: Japan

The Japanese government said Tuesday it will allocate an additional 1.4 billion yen ($9.97 million) for the state funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to cover security costs and welcome foreign dignitaries, bringing the total price tag to over 1.6 billion yen.With opposition to the slain former leader's state funeral growing, given his divisive political stances and various scandals, the vastly larger outlays that draw on taxpayers' money may trigger a strong backlash from the public, observers said.Late last month, the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said it will spe…READ FULL ARTICLE