Photo/Illutration Police officers escort Tetsuya Yamagami out of a Nara police station. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

NARA--Tetsuya Yamagami pleaded guilty on Oct. 28 to murder and other charges in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

“Everything is true,” Yamagami, 45, said when asked by Presiding Judge Shinichi Tanaka to respond to the indictment. “There is no mistake that I did it.”

The lay judge trial opened at the Nara District Court.

It was the first time the defendant spoke in public in more than three years since the incident.

Yamagami is accused of murdering Abe with a homemade gun at around 11:30 a.m. on July 8, 2022, in Nara, where the former prime minister was giving a campaign speech in support of a Liberal Democratic Party candidate ahead of an Upper House election.

During the investigation, Yamagami is said to have stated that his family was destroyed financially after his mother joined the Unification Church and made large donations to the organization.

The suspect said he held a grudge against the church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and targeted Abe because of his perceived close ties to it.

In their opening statement, prosecutors said Yamagami’s animosity against the Unification Church grew after he gave up on attending university and drifted from one job to another.

“For the defendant, his family was no longer a place where he could live in peace” after his mother joined the Unification Church and began making donations, they said.

But prosecutors said one’s upbringing should not be a major factor in determining the sentence.

Defense lawyers said they will not contest the murder charge.

But they argued that the gun discharge provisions of the firearms and swords control law do not apply because Yamagami’s homemade shotgun does not fall under the four types of weapons covered by the law at the time of the incident.

In their opening statement, defense lawyers described Yamagami’s background in detail to explain why he decided to commit the crime.

Following the assassination, links between the Unification Church and politicians, particularly those in the LDP, came to light.

Observers are watching whether the trial proceedings can shed light on why Yamagami specifically targeted Abe.

A key point of contention will be how much weight the influence of the church should carry in determining the sentence.

The incident brought renewed attention to the plight of children raised by Unification Church followers, who had strong religious affiliations.

Based on a government request, the Tokyo District on March 25 ordered the dissolution of the Unification Church, citing its dodgy solicitations of excessive donations and its failure to implement meaningful reforms as promised.

For the 32 seats available for spectators at the Nara District Court, 727 people applied.

Yamagami has also been charged over allegations he manufactured six homemade guns at his home in Nara from around December 2020; produced more than 2 kilograms of black powder between February 2021 and March 2022; fired homemade guns at a materials storage site in Nara between December 2021 and June 2022; and discharged a homemade gun at a building housing a church-related facility in the early hours of July 7, 2022.

In January 2023, Yamagami was indicted on charges of murder and violating the firearms and swords control law following five-and-a-half months of psychiatric evaluation.

Two months later, he was indicted on other charges, including violating the ordnance manufacturing law.

Nara prefectural police also referred him to prosecutors on suspicion of obstructing election freedom in violation of the Public Offices Election Law. But the Nara District Public Prosecutors Office did not pursue that charge due to insufficient evidence.

The pretrial conference procedures lasted about 33 months, nearly three times the average.

According to sources, witness arrangements were delayed due to disagreements between prosecutors and defense lawyers over how deeply to examine the church’s influence and whether the firearm discharge provisions apply to Yamagami’s homemade gun.

Eighteen days of hearings have been scheduled with closing arguments set for Dec. 18. The verdict is expected on Jan. 21.

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