TOKYO — A Japanese court sentenced a man who admitted to assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to life imprisonment on Wednesday.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, admitted to killing Abe in July 2022 as the former prime minister was giving a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.
Abe, one of Japan’s most influential politicians, was serving as a regular lawmaker after leaving the prime minister’s job when he was killed.
Yamaguchi told investigators he was motivated by a desire to expose Japanese politicians’ ties to the Unification Church, which he blamed for encouraging his mother to neglect him during a difficult childhood.
Yamagami pleaded guilty to murder in the trial that started in October. Japanese law authorizes the death penalty in murder cases, but prosecutors do not usually request it unless at least two people are killed.
The revelation of close ties between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Unification Church caused the party to pull back from the church, prompted investigations into the church’s fundraising and recruiting tactics and resulted in a court decision that stripped the church’s Japanese branch of its tax-exempt religious status and ordered it dissolved. The church has since appealed and a decision is pending.
A political blue blood, Abe was Japan’s longest-serving post-war leader, holding power for nine years before stepping down in 2021. He led the largest faction of the governing party and forged a friendship with U.S. President Trump.
Abe’s pro-family, anti-communist brand of conservatism is now represented in Japanese politics by his protege Sanae Takaichi, who took office in October as Japan’s first female prime minister.
The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who grew up under the repressive communist in North Korea.
The church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, evolved over decades into a global spiritual movement and an affiliated commercial empire comprising hundreds of ventures. The reverend, who died in 2012, founded The Washington Times.
