Man Gets Life in Prison for Killing Shinzo Abe, Former Leader of Japan

Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, had admitted to shooting Mr. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, with a homemade gun at a political rally in 2022.

A man was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for assassinating Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, bringing an end to a case that shocked the nation and provoked debate about political violence and broader societal issues.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, was found guilty by a district court in the western city of Nara of several crimes, including murder and violating gun control laws. He admitted in October to shooting Mr. Abe with a homemade gun at an election rally in Nara in 2022, but his lawyers had sought a shorter sentence.

Inside the courtroom, Mr. Yamagami looked down and did not visibly react as the sentence was read by a judge. He wore a black turtleneck, chinos and blue sandals. His hair was tied in a bun.

The case of Mr. Yamagami, who was unemployed and had briefly served in Japan’s military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, divided Japanese society.

Some people expressed sympathy for him because of his difficult childhood; his family faced economic hardships, and his father and brother both died by suicide. Others said he should receive a harsh penalty for killing Mr. Abe, a towering figure in Japanese politics who stepped down in 2020. Mr. Abe, 67, was stumping for a junior politician near a train station in Nara when he was shot in the neck.

During the trial, which lasted about two months, Mr. Yamagami said he shot Mr. Abe because he perceived him as supporting the powerful Unification Church, a South Korea-based group with substantial operations in Japan. Mr. Yamagami said the church had bankrupted his family by forcing his mother, a member, to turn over her life savings.

“I felt that striking back at the Unification Church — or, rather, dealing them a significant hit — was the very meaning of my life,” he said during the trial.

The trial drew intense interest in Japan, where political violence and shootings are rare. The last time such a high-profile assassination occurred was in 1936, when two former prime ministers were killed during a coup by the Imperial Japanese Army.

In Nara, nearly 700 people lined up outside the courthouse on Wednesday, hoping to be among the 33 members of the public allowed inside the courtroom.

At the outset of the trial, Mr. Yamagami did not contest the charges.

“Everything is true,” he told the court in October. “There is no doubt that I did this.”

The proceedings were more about the punishment. His lawyers urged a sentence of no more than 20 years in prison. They argued that his homemade gun was not subject to Japan’s strict firearms control laws. They also contended that the court should take into account how Mr. Yamagami’s mother’s involvement with the Unification Church had placed a strain on her son. The family’s financial situation grew so dire, Mr. Yamagami said, that he had attempted suicide in 2005, hoping his siblings could make a life insurance claim.

Prosecutors pushed the court to impose a life sentence, saying that an assassination of a former state leader was a crime without precedent in modern Japanese history. They argued that the hardships of Mr. Yamagami’s childhood were irrelevant.

“While his misfortunes cannot be denied, he is an adult in his 40s capable of distinguishing right from wrong,” a lawyer for the prosecution said, according to Japanese news reports.

The assassination brought renewed scrutiny to the Unification Church, which has long been an influential force in Japanese politics and society. Responding to public outcry, the Japanese government investigated the church’s fund-raising tactics.

A Tokyo court last year ordered the Japanese branch of the church to be dissolved. The church has appealed the decision.

Mr. Abe, who led Japan from 2006 to 2007, and again from 2012 to 2020, was the scion of a staunchly nationalist family of politicians. As prime minister, he worked to unfetter Japan’s military after decades of postwar pacifism, and he helped lift Japan out of its economic malaise through aggressive financial stimulus to boost spending. He was also a mentor to Japan’s current prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who shares many of his hard-line views.

A statement by Mr. Abe’s widow, Akie Abe, was read in court in December. She called her husband “my one and only irreplaceable family member.”

“This sense of loss from losing my husband so suddenly will never disappear,” she said. She asked Mr. Yamagami to “face what you have done head-on and properly atone for your crimes.”

On his final day of testimony, Mr. Yamagami apologized for killing Mr. Abe. He said he did not feel resentment toward Mr. Abe’s family.

“There is no doubt that my taking of his life has caused them immense suffering,” he said, according to Japanese news reports. “Having lost a close relative myself, I know there is no excuse for what I have done. I am deeply sorry for the terrible thing I did.”

Kiuko Notoya contributed reporting from Tokyo.

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