NARA—In the final words of his testimony, Tetsuya Yamagami for the first time apologized to the bereaved family of Shinzo Abe, saying he had no excuses for killing the former prime minister.

His words came at the 14th hearing of his murder trial at the Nara District Court on Dec. 4.

Yamagami, 45, had indicated he would apologize during testimony the previous day, when Abe’s widow, Akie Abe, was in attendance.

She was not present when Yamagami’s lawyer on Dec. 4 raised the topic at the end of a question-answer session that lasted 45 minutes.

The lawyer asks the defendant if he had planned to apologize at the end of the trial and make a statement after hearing other testimonies.

“Yes,” Yamagami responded.

The lawyer set the stage for Yamagami: “This is the final question. A person’s life was lost because of what you have done. Are there any words for that?” the lawyer asked.

After a silent pause, Yamagami responded with carefully chosen words.

“I felt no resentment against the family members of former Prime Minister Abe, including Ms. Akie Abe. There is no doubt that I made them suffer by killing him, as I also have lost my family,” Yamagami said.

In a trembling voice, he continued: “There is no room for excuses. I am very sorry for what I did.”

Yamagami has admitted to fatally shooting Abe with a homemade shotgun in Nara in July 2022 over his ties to the Unification Church.

The defendant said his mother’s heavy donations to the organization ruined his family and led him to poverty.

The lawyer had earlier asked Yamagami whether he felt the gravity of taking someone’s life.

Yamagami, who was apprehended immediately after the shooting, said he learned from media reports that Abe had died, so the death felt indirect.

However, after watching footage of the shooting in court, the severity of his actions sank in, he said.

The defendant was also questioned about the “social impact” of the incident.

After Yamagami was arrested, the Unification Church, now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, came under scrutiny.

Its connections to lawmakers were exposed. The government also investigated complaints by believers and second-generation followers about the church’s shady activities and collection practices.

The Tokyo District Court in March this year ordered the dissolution of the church.

“Did you somehow predict the impact?” the lawyer asked.

“I couldn’t have predicted it, but I’m grateful that things turned out this way,” Yamagami said.

When it was prosecutors’ turn to question the defendant, they also touched on Yamagami’s feelings concerning the aftermath of the shooting.

“Did you have a desire to commit the incident and have it reported by the media?” a prosecutor asked.

“I think I did, in terms of inflicting damage on the church,” Yamagami said.

“Do you still hold a grudge against the church’s leader, Hak Ja Han?” a prosecutor asked.

“Not as strongly as before,” the defendant said.

Yamagami was then asked whether he thought the shooting incident was “good.”

“There was a positive aspect, at least for me and other victims of the church, but I can’t make any general statements,” he said.

When asked if he felt conflicted between doing the right thing and his emotions when he was making the gun, Yamagami paused briefly and said he believes that killing Abe was “wrong.”

However, when asked if he had felt that way at any point before the shooting, Yamagami said Abe was “not a completely unrelated person with the church, so I was unable to completely switch over.”

The prosecution and defense are expected to give their closing arguments at the next hearing on Dec. 18.

FINANCIAL HARDSHIP THE MOTIVE

Hisashi Wada from the Japanese Red Cross Osaka Hospital, who conducted a psychiatric evaluation on the defendant, testified as a witness for the prosecution on Dec. 4.

Wada said he interviewed Yamagami 21 times and concluded the defendant had “no mental disorder.”

He noted that Yamagami quit his job and was about to go bankrupt in June 2022, just before the shooting of Abe.

Wada told the court that Yamagami had expressed “resistance” to his situation at the time, saying his “mother would be pleased (about his bankruptcy), believing it happened because he opposed the church.”

He said that when he asked the defendant if he attacked Abe because he couldn’t avoid bankruptcy, Yamagami said “yes” during an interview.

Wada said Yamagami’s mindset was shaped not only by a deep sense of failure since junior high school and his anger toward the church for breaking up his family but also by a strong feeling of pride that made him somewhat ashamed of his work as a “haken” temporary employee.

However, Wada concluded the direct motive of the crime was financial hardship.

It is unusual for a psychiatrist to testify in a trial in which the defendant’s mental competency is not in question.

Senior officials of Nara District Public Prosecutors Office explained that Wada was called as a witness to “explain the psychological processes that led to the crime.”

(This article was compiled from reports by Minami Endo, Ko Sendo and Yikai Zhou.)