Tetsuya Yamagami receives a life sentence for killing former PM Shinzo Abe, a crime linked to his family’s ruin by the Unification Church.
NARA: The gunman who assassinated Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, was convicted on Wednesday at a court in Nara more than three years after the shocking broad-daylight shooting.
He faced charges including murder and firearms control law violations for using a handmade gun during Abe’s campaign speech in July 2022.
Judge Shinichi Tanaka handed down the sentence following a trial that opened last October, where Yamagami admitted to the murder.
Prosecutors had sought a life term, calling the killing “unprecedented in our post-war history” with “extremely serious consequences” for society.
The Japanese version of life imprisonment leaves open the possibility of parole, though experts say many inmates die while incarcerated.
The trial revealed Yamagami’s motive was rooted in a grudge against the Unification Church.
Prosecutors argued he believed killing an influential figure like Abe would draw public criticism to the church.
Yamagami’s family was plunged into bankruptcy by his mother’s donations to the sect, which totalled around 100 million yen.
His defence team pleaded for leniency, stressing his upbringing was mired in “religious abuse” from his mother’s extreme faith.
Yamagami was forced to give up higher education and attempted suicide in 2005 before his brother died by suicide.
He began hand-crafting a lethal firearm in 2020, with prosecutors citing the meticulous process as proof of a highly “premeditated” attack.
The assassination forced a national reckoning in a country with little experience of gun violence.
A police report said security officials failed to immediately identify the first shot, coming to Abe’s rescue too late.
The killing also ignited scrutiny of alleged ties between conservative lawmakers and the secretive Unification Church.
Investigations after the murder led to revelations about church links to Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, prompting four ministers to resign.
Outside the court, public interest was intense with queues for courtroom tickets.
One man held a banner urging the judge to take Yamagami’s difficult life circumstances “into the fullest consideration”.
