“I don’t think the church is coming to church right now… If you ask for an investigation, we will cooperate faithfully”
The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church) confirmed on the 10th that the mother of Tetsuya Yamagami (41), who killed former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (67) during an election campaign, was a former Unification Church member.
A Unification Church official explained, “There was a Japanese media report that Yamagami’s mother was a member of the Unification Church, and when I checked with the Japanese headquarters, she used to be a member of the Unification Church, but now it seems that she is not attending the church.”
The official added, “It has not been confirmed exactly how much Yamagami’s mother contributed or how long she attended church.”
“There are articles in the Japanese media, but there have been no inquiries from the Japanese police yet,” he said.
Shukangendai (週刊現代) reported that Yamagami made a statement to the investigative authorities, saying, “My mother is a member of the Unification Church, and I tried to find out that Shinzo Abe was close to the Unification Church.”
The Yomiuri Shimbun also reported that Yamagami mentioned the name of a specific religious group in a police investigation and stated, “My mother is a believer and has donated a large amount of money to go bankrupt.”
Yamagami said that he initially aimed at 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.
Regarding the reason for Abe’s murder, he said, “It’s not because of a grudge against[Abe’s]political creed,” he said.
The video message of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mentioned in the article was identified as a special speech video screened at the ‘Think Tank 2022 Hope Forward Conference’ co-hosted by the Unification Church and a related organization, the Universal Families Federation (UPF) in September last year. .
This video was pre-recorded and sent online on the day of the event.
In addition to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, former US President Donald Trump, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, and former EU Commission President Jose Manu Baho participated in the event either pre-recorded or online.
A Unification Church official said, “I understand that former Prime Minister Abe participated in the event at the Korean headquarters at the time because he had a will to participate in the reunification of the Korean Peninsula and world peace.”
/yunhap news