Kigali, Rwanda – A Japanese court has sentenced Tetsuya Yamagami to life in prison for the 2022 assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, a killing that shocked Japan, a country where gun violence is rare.
Yamagami, 45, pleaded guilty to shooting Abe with a homemade gun during a campaign speech in the city of Nara. Prosecutors argued that the severity of the crime warranted the harshest sentence, citing its profound impact on Japanese society.
The case divided public opinion. While many saw Yamagami as a cold-blooded murderer, his defense argued that he was a victim of religious abuse, pointing to his mother’s large donations to the Unification church, which they said had financially ruined the family.
Yamagami told the court that his anger stemmed from Abe’s perceived links to the church, though prosecutors maintained that Abe had not directly harmed him. In an emotional statement, Abe’s widow, Akie Abe, said that the pain of losing her husband would “never be relieved.”
Abe’s assassination triggered investigations into the Unification church and its ties to politicians from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, leading to ministerial resignations and the revocation of the church’s legal status in 2025.
The life sentence closes a major chapter in a case that exposed deep social tensions alongside one of Japan’s most traumatic political crimes.
