Politics Life imprisonment for assassination attempt on Japan's ex-Prime Minister Abe
Three and a half years after the deadly attack on the Japanese ex-head of government Shinzo Abe, the assassin has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
21.01.2026, 06:14
SDA
The competent district court found the now 45-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami guilty of shooting Japan's longest-serving prime minister in the post-war era with a homemade firearm during an election campaign speech in the city of Nara.
Abe's violent death in July 2022 caused worldwide horror. Yamagami was overpowered and arrested in front of the cameras after the assassination attempt. According to media reports, he later testified that he had acted out of hatred for the controversial Unification Church - a religious organization that had received large donations from his mother, which he said had driven the family to financial ruin. He had chosen Abe as his target because he saw him as a central link between the sect and Japan's politics.
The assassination attempt on Abe brought the links between the Unification Church, also known as the Moon sect, and members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, of which Abe was the leader, into the spotlight.
