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Japanese and foreign dignitaries paid tribute to assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe at a controversial state funeral on Tuesday, as long lines of people gathered to offer flowers and prayers, AFP reported.

Abe's ashes, carried by his widow Akie, arrived at the storied Budokan venue in Tokyo, where a 19-gun salute sounded in honour of the slain former leader.

The motorcade carrying his remains had travelled from his widow's home in the capital, past a row of white-uniformed armed troops who stood to attention.

Outside the Budokan, thousands of Japanese people stood in line as the ashes arrived, waiting to deliver flowers and say a prayer in two mourning tents.

Abe was Japan's longest-serving prime minister and one of the country's most recognisable political figures, known for cultivating international alliances and his "Abenomics" economic strategy.

He resigned in 2020 over recurring health problems, but remained a key political voice and was campaigning for his ruling party when a lone gunman killed him on July 8.

The shooting sent shock waves through a country with famously low gun crime and prompted international condemnation.

But the decision to give him a state funeral -- only the second for a former premier in the post-war period -- has provoked opposition, with around 60 percent of Japanese against the event in recent polls.