THE man accused of killing former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pleaded guilty on Tuesday, three years after the broad-daylight assassination that shocked the country.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, stood accused of murder and violations of arms control laws for allegedly using a handmade firearm to shoot dead Japan's longest-serving leader during an election speech in July 2022.
"Everything is true," Yamagami said in court as his trial began in the western city of Nara. The proceedings opened under tight security and are scheduled to conclude in mid-December, Kyodo news agency reported.
Yamagami shot Abe because he held a grudge against the Unification Church, which he believed had close ties to Abe and other Japanese politicians. He told investigators that massive donations his mother made to the church caused his family's financial collapse.
The Unification Church, founded in South Korea a year after the Korean War ended in 1953, has long-faced hundreds of lawsuits in Japan from families who say it manipulated members into draining their savings to make donations.
Despite decades of controversy, the church maintained close links with Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and largely escaped official scrutiny.
The trial coincided with a visit to Japan by US President Donald Trump for talks with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a conservative protege of Abe. During their meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday, Takaichi highlighted her close ties with the slain leader, while Trump called Abe a "great friend". - October 28, 2025
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