As trial opens, Tetsuya Yamagami admits murdering Japan’s longest serving chief three years in the past.
Revealed On 28 Oct 2025
The person accused of killing former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 has pleaded responsible to homicide.
Forty-five-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami admitted all expenses learn out by prosecutors as his trial opened on Tuesday, in accordance with the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
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Yamagami was charged with homicide and violations of arms management legal guidelines for allegedly utilizing a hand-crafted weapon to shoot Japan’s longest serving chief.
“Every part is true,” the suspect advised the court docket, in accordance with the AFP information company.
Abe was shot as he gave a speech throughout an election marketing campaign within the western metropolis of Nara on July 8, 2022. Yamagami was arrested on the scene.
The assassination was reportedly triggered by the suspect’s anger over hyperlinks between Abe’s Liberal Democratic Get together (LDP) to the Unification Church.
Yamagami held a grudge towards the South Korean spiritual group attributable to his mom’s donation of 100 million yen ($663,218). The present ruined his household’s monetary well being, Japanese media reported.
Lengthy the topic of controversy and criticism, the Unification Church, whose followers are referred to disparagingly as “Moonies”, has since confronted elevated strain from authorities over accusations of bribery.
The church’s Japanese followers are considered as a key supply of revenue.
The capturing was adopted by revelations that greater than 100 LDP lawmakers had ties to the Unification Church, driving down public help for the ruling social gathering.
After Tuesday’s preliminary court docket session, 17 extra hearings are scheduled this yr earlier than a verdict is scheduled for January 21.
The trial opened the identical day as two of Abe’s former allies, LDP chief and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and visiting United States President Donald Trump, held a summit in Tokyo.
Abe, who served as Japan’s prime minister for nearly 9 years, is recurrently talked about by each throughout public occasions.
On Tuesday, Takaichi gave Trump a golf putter owned by Abe and different golf memorabilia throughout their assembly on the Akasaka Palace.
