Prime Minister's News Update
Thursday, June 8,2000
The official funeral for the late Prime Minister Obuchi
Prime Minister Mori delivering the eulogy
President Clinton laying a flower on the altar
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The official funeral for the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, sponsored by the Government of Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party, was held in the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo. The approximately 6,000 mourners included Their Highnesses the Crown Prince and Princess and other members of the Imperial family, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the House of Councillors of the National Diet, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and representatives of various sectors of Japanese society, as well as dignitaries from 153 countries, three regions, and 22 international organizations. Among them were President Bill Clinton of the United States, President Kim Dae Jung of the Republic of Korea, and other foreign leaders, as well as ambassadors to Tokyo. The late Prime Minister Obuchi, holder of the Second Senior Court Rank and the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, died on May 14 at the age of 62, following a stroke.
Delivering the eulogy as the chief mourner, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said in part, "No one was more concerned than he with the current conditions and the future of our nation as we approached the tumultuous turn of the century. His inner being was afire with an indomitable spirit and the desire to stand as a 'reformer.' It was he who staked his very life on steering this nation, caught in the vortex of tribulations, to safety. I am anguished to think how deeply disappointed Mr. Obuchi must have been to have had to retire from the arena of action, felled by an unforeseen illness. Still midway on the path to his goal, he departed without witnessing the fruits of his own labor."
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