Yamagami Viewed Abe as Center of Politics-Church Relations

From Jiji

December 2 2025

NARA – 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.”