Yamagami’s Mother Apologizes in Testimony at Abe Shooting Trial, Still Follows Unification Church
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The mother of Tetsuya Yamagami, the man charged with murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, apologized during his trial and said that she still follows the Unification Church at the Nara District Court on Thursday.
“I sincerely apologize for the terrible incident Tetsuya caused,” she said at the seventh hearing in the trial of her 45-year-old son, who is also changed with other crimes in the fatal shooting that occurred while Abe was delivering a campaign speech in Nara.
It is the first time she has spoken publicly.
She appeared as a witness for the defense, and a partition was set up around the witness stand to conceal her from the public gallery.
At the outset of her testimony, an attorney for the defense said, “You have something you want to say, right?” In response, the mother apologized to Abe, his wife Akie, 63, and the public.
Asked about her current religious affiliation, she said, “I follow the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification,” the formal name of the Unification Church.
According to both the prosecution’s and defense’s opening statement, the defendant resented the religious group, to which his mother had made substantial donations, and as a result targeted Abe, who had sent a video message to one of the group’s affiliated organizations.
Donations soon after joining
According to the mother’s testimony, her husband committed suicide in 1984. In August 1991, she joined the organization. At that time, her eldest son — the defendant’s older brother — had lost sight in one eye, and the defendant was in elementary school.
The mother said she joined the religion after a young woman visited her home and asked, “Is your family doing well?” The mother told the woman about her eldest son and received an invitation to a Unification Church facility.
The mother said she donated ¥20 million to the group immediately after joining. “[I was] deeply troubled by my husband’s suicide and my eldest son’s surgery,” she explained.
About six months later, she donated another ¥30 million. “My sick eldest son was a major factor,” she said, adding that she believed the donations would save him.
According to her testimony, the source of the total ¥50 million was a life insurance payout after her husband’s death. She also said that she sold property and other items following the death of the defendant’s grandfather in 1998 and donated about another ¥40 million.
She is said to have donated ¥100 million in total.
She told the court that she bought paintings from the group for about ¥700,000 to ¥1 million each and a pot for about ¥700,000. She also took a trip to South Korea, where the Church’s headquarters are located, leaving the defendant, who was a minor back then, and his older brother at home.
When the defense attorney pointed out that the timing of the defendant’s enrollment in school coincided with the donations, the mother said, “I thought that donating was more important than [education].”
No eye contact
Yamagami has refused to see his mother since the incident. Although he would have been able see her face from where he was seated at the hearing, he avoided making eye contact with her and listened with his eyes downcast.
His mother was to testify again on Tuesday.
Yamagami admitted to the charges at an initial hearing. The defense plans to seek leniency, arguing that his difficult upbringing had a significant influence on his motive. Prosecutors, meanwhile, contend that his upbringing was unrelated to Abe and did not warrant a significant reduction in sentencing.
Content retrieved from: https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/crime-courts/20251114-292634/.
