TOKYO - Thousands of mourners paid their last respects at a wake yesterday to former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi before a private funeral overshadowed by a controversial statement by his successor.
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, already under criticism for a string of gaffes, stirred new outrage when he said Japan was a divine society with the Emperor at its core.
The remark blurred Japan's post-war constitutional separation of politics and religion.
Analysts said it was an apparent bid by the Prime Minister, who was swept into office just six weeks ago after Obuchi was felled by a stroke, to win the vote of religious bodies before a general election likely on June 25.
Opposition politicians hit back, saying Mori's comment was dangerous and stirred up painful memories of the era before the Second World War when the Emperor was regarded as divine and the militarists set out to conquer the rest of Asia in his name.
Obuchi died on Sunday, six weeks after slipping into a coma following the stroke.
The official funeral of the man who took office in 1998 - and was best known for spending heavily to get Japan's stagnant economy on the road to recovery after its worst recession in more than 50 years - has been set for June 8.
That means that Mori, who heads the dominant Liberal Democratic Party, can proceed, as expected, to dissolve the Lower House on June 2 or 3.
Elections must be held by October.
The election is virtually certain to be held on June 25 - Obuchi's birthday - a choice many observers say is an attempt by the Liberal Democrats, who dominate the current tripartite coalition Government, to cash in on a sympathy vote.
- REUTER
Political remark mars last rites
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