Shinzo Abe’s funeral held in Tokyo

The last rites were performed at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo. At the inside service, attended by a relatively small group of family and friends, Mr. Abe’s widow, Aki, said her husband’s sudden death was like a dream.

According to public broadcaster NHK, Mrs Abe told mourners: “As a politician, he left behind a lot to do, but he sowed many seeds and I believe they will sprout.”

With the streets crowded, a car carrying Mr Abe’s coffin overtook places where he spent his nearly 30-year career as a parliamentarian, including Parliament House and the headquarters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

It entered the fray of the Prime Minister’s Office where he served from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020, making him the longest-serving holder of the office in Japanese history. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other dignitaries bowed before the car as they moved forward.

Police said the suspect, Mr. Yamagami, told investigators he was angry with a religious group his mother had given money to. Mr Yamagami said he targeted Mr Abe because he believed the former leader had ties to the group, police said.

On Monday the head of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, a branch of the church founded by Rev Moon Sun-myung in South Korea, said Mr. Yamagami mom attended church In the late 1990s, he donated and regularly attended events but in 2002 his mother went bankrupt.

write to Peter Landers peter.landers@wsj.com