Japan: Ex-PM’s Assassin Sentenced to Life

By Staff, Agencies

The man who killed former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 received a life sentence on Wednesday.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, was arrested at the scene in Nara while former PM Abe campaigned for the Liberal Democratic Party [LDP] and admitted to the killing in court last October.

The Nara trial highlighted links between the LDP and the controversial Unification Church, a powerful South Korean-based religious group founded in 1954 by self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon, which critics label a money-making cult.

Yamagami said he held a grudge against the Unification Church—colloquially called the “Moonies”—after his mother donated the family’s savings, and targeted Abe for supporting a church-linked event.

An internal LDP investigation found more than a hundred lawmakers had connections to the Unification Church. Historically, the conservative Japanese party and the church shared common ground in opposing communism and other left-wing ideologies.

After Abe’s assassination, then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was forced to publicly distance the LDP from the church. Last March, the Tokyo District Court ordered the dissolution of the organization’s Japanese branch.

While Abe is considered a divisive figure domestically, many foreign leaders credited him for skilled diplomacy and an ability to forge good personal connections. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Abe’s widow Akie at the Kremlin last May.