A man tries to set himself on fire near the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo

A man tried to set himself on fire today in Tokyo near the office of Japanese Prime Minister "Fumio Kishida" to protest against the national funeral scheduled for September 27 of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to Japanese media.

The man sustained several burns and was taken to hospital, according to the media. His health was not immediately known.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw grass and bushes burnt in a small area on the side of the road, with police and journalists in the distance.

The man was taken to hospital conscious, Kyodo news agency reported, while police found a letter he had apparently left at the scene, expressing his strong opposition to the scheduled national funeral for Shinzo Abe.

The man said he was in his 70s and told the police that he had poured gasoline on his body and set himself on fire.

Former Prime Minister Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in Japan's history, was shot dead while addressing a rally on July 8 in the western city of Nara.

He was sixty-seven years old.

The right-wing nationalist Abe has been a prominent figure and a controversial politician who left power in 2020 due to health reasons.

His assassination caused shock in Japan and the world.

However, current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's decision to organize a national funeral for Shinzo Abe without consulting on it, raised a wave of objections unexpected in terms of its size.

Very rarely, national funerals for political officials have been held since the end of World War II.

The last such ceremony for a deceased prime minister dates back to 1967.

The government estimated the cost of Abe's funeral, attended by hundreds of foreign dignitaries, on Japanese taxpayers at 1.7 billion yen ($12 million).

It has sparked criticism in part of public opinion.

Shinzo Abe served as prime minister for a record period of nearly nine years, in two phases, from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020. He was known on the international scene for his intense diplomacy and ambitious economic stimulus policy.

But there was no unanimity about him in Japan, where many were critical of his nationalist ideas and his intention to amend Japan's pacifist constitution.

His reputation was tarnished by several favoritism cases.

Demonstrations, usually few in Japan, have increased in recent days to protest the funeral. 

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