Tokyo: A man set himself on fire near the Japanese prime minister’s office on Wednesday in an apparent protest of the government’s decision to hold a state funeral for former premier Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated earlier this year, TV Asahi reported.

The man was taken to hospital suffering burns to his entire body, while a police officer who tried to extinguish the flames was also injured, media said.

A letter opposing Abe’s state funeral was found nearby, media added.

Abe, Japan’s longest-serving premier, was assassinated on July 8. His state funeral is set for September 27, with some 6000 people from Japan and overseas set to take part.

But opposition to the event has been growing because of revelations after Abe’s killing of links between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which he was a powerful member, and the controversial Unification Church. The suspect in Abe’s death has said the church bankrupted his mother and he felt the former prime minister supported it.

Links to the Unification Church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s, have grown into a huge problem for current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the LDP since they emerged following Abe’s killing. The LDP earlier this month said a survey showed nearly half of 379 politicians had some form of interaction with the church.

Public sentiment was narrowly in favour of a state funeral at the time it was announced, shortly after Abe’s death, but opinion has shifted sharply.

Numerous public opinion polls show most Japanese now oppose the ceremony, helping to send Kishida’s support plummeting. A poll by the Mainichi Daily conducted at the weekend showed his support at 29 per cent, down 6 percentage points from late August – a level that analysts say makes it difficult for a prime minister to have enough support to carry out his agenda.