A local report said that Tetsuya Yamagami, who shot and killed former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, stated that he had decided to commit the crime after seeing Abe’s video message sent to a specific religion his mother was missing.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, former Maritime Self-Defense Forces member Yamagami mentioned the name of a specific religious group during a police investigation and stated, “My mother is a believer, and I went bankrupt by donating a large amount of money.” passed on
It is reported that Yamagami initially targeted the leader of this religious group, but when access became difficult, he believed that “Abe spread this religion in Japan” and changed the target of the murder to Abe. However, he is known to have stated, “I do not have a grudge against political creeds.”
In addition, according to local media reports such as NHK Broadcasting and TBS Broadcasting in Japan, Yamagami was reported to have made a statement during the police investigation to the effect that “my mother’s family life was messed up, including making a lot of donations because of her mother’s involvement in a religious organization.”
According to the Asahi Shimbun, Yamagami’s father ran a construction company, but his mother took over the company when Yamagami died suddenly when he was young. After her, her mother was reported to have paid large sums of money to religious organizations while practicing her religion.
According to investigative officials, Yamagami’s mother was declared bankrupt by the Nara District Court in 2002, and her mother’s construction company also closed in 2009. Yamagami’s relatives reportedly told the Asahi Shimbun that “she must have continued to blame Yamagami against religious groups.”
Yamagami served as a fixed-term self-defense officer in the Maritime Self-Defense Force from 2002 to 2005. At the time, she was known to have learned how to fire and dismantle a rifle and assemble it.
Choi Soo-jin, reporter at Hankyung.com [email protected]