The man who killed Shinzo Abe believed the former Japanese leader was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother’s financial ruin, police said. Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, was identified as the suspect on suspicion of murder on Friday. He was seen in videos repeatedly shown on Japanese television calmly approaching Japan’s longest-serving prime minister from behind and firing. He was upset that Abe had promoted a religious group that his mother’s money went to, media reports say. Police declined to comment on the details reported by Japanese media of his motive or preparation for the attack.
Suspect Yamagami jury-rigged the weapon from parts bought online, spending months plotting the attack, police say. He had considered a bomb attack before opting for a gun, according to public broadcaster NHK. Videos showed Abe turning toward the attacker after the first shot before crumpling to the ground. Police found bullet holes in a sign attached to a campaign van near the site of the shooting.
Hostess bars
Yamagami lived on the eighth floor of a building in Tokyo’s Ginza district, one of the city’s most expensive shopping streets. One neighbour said: I said hello but he ignored me. He was just looking down at the ground to the side not wearing a mask.
Navy gun experience
A person named Tetsuya Yamagami served in the Maritime Self-Defence Force from 2002 to 2005, a spokesman for Japan’s navy said, declining to say whether this was the suspected killer, as media have reported. He was assigned to a destroyer artillery section and trained with live ammunition once a year, a senior navy officer told Reuters. Yamagami enrolled in a staffing business after leaving the navy and began working as a forklift operator at a plant in Kyoto in 2020. He had no difficulties until the middle of April, when he missed work without authorization and then told his manager he wanted to retire. Yamagami took his vacation time and concluded on May 15.
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