Yamagami Viewed Abe as Center of Politics-Church Relations

Nara, Dec. 2 (Jiji Press)–Tetsuya Yamagami, who is standing trial for murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, testified in court on Tuesday that he believed Abe was at the center of the relationship between politics and the Unification Church, explaining why he carried out the murder. In his third round of questioning during the 12th hearing of his lay-judge trial, presided over by Judge Shinichi Tanaka at Nara District Court, Yamagami, 45, said, “I thought that shooting politicians other than Abe would have only a weak significance.” When a lay judge again asked Yamagami about a video message sent by Abe in 2021 to an organization related to the religious group, he said, “It was intolerable for me that the relationship between Abe and the Unification Church was socially accepted.” “My hatred and hostility (toward Abe) grew gradually,” he added. Asked whether he had accomplished his goal, Yamagami said, “I can’t answer that.” In his answers to questions from public prosecutors about the security measures at the speech venue before the shooting, Yamagami said, “When I was thinking Abe was about to finish his speech, a security guard moved away, and I felt that it was not just a coincidence.” He said that when he shot Abe from behind during the former prime minister’s stump speech in the western Japan city of Nara, “my mind was blank, and I tried not to think about anything.” He said he fired two shots at Abe’s upper body. According to his explanation, Yamagami visited the western city of Okayama, where Abe delivered a speech the day before his assassination, but gave up his plan to attack Abe at the venue. On his way home, Yamagami learned from the website of the Liberal Democratic Party that Abe would visit Nara the next day. “I never thought that (Abe) would come again the day after I failed to shoot him, so I felt that it couldn’t be a coincidence,” Yamagami recalled. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]