The man who killed Shinzo Abe has been sentenced to life in prison, three years after he fired a fatal shot at the former Japanese prime minister during a political rally in the city of Nara in 2022.
Although Tatsuya Yamagami pleaded guilty at the start of his trial last year, public opinion was divided on the punishment he deserved.
While many see the 45-year-old as a cold-blooded killer, others are sympathetic due to his difficult family situation.
Prosecutors said Yamagami deserved a life sentence for his "horrific act."
Abe's murder shocked residents of the Asian country where gun crimes are almost non-existent.
Seeking a lighter sentence, Yamagami's defense said he was the victim of "religious abuse."
His family went bankrupt because his mother was a Unification Church member.
Yamagami was angry with Abe after learning of his ties to the controversial church.
Nearly 700 people waited outside the Nara courthouse on January 21st to witness the verdict.
Abe was assassinated while giving a speech, and the crime prompted an investigation into the Unification Church and its controversial practices, such as taking money from believers, which can be financially devastating for some.
This case also revealed the connections of certain politicians from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party to the church, which led to the resignations of several ministers.
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Journalist Eito Suzuki, who covered almost every hearing during the trial, said Yamagami and his family appeared to be "overwhelmed by despair."
Yamagami seemed "exhausted and resigned to his fate," says Suzuki, who researched the Unification Church long before Abe's shocking assassination.
"Everything is true. There is no doubt that I did it," Yamagami said on the first day of the trial in October 2025.
Armed with a gun he had assembled at home, he shot Abe as the former prime minister spoke at an election rally in the western city of Nara on July 8, 2022.
The murder of the most famous public figure in Japan at that time shocked the world.
Yamagam's lawyers had asked for a prison sentence of no more than 20 years, arguing that their client was a victim of "religious abuse."
He despised the church, to which his mother had donated his late father's life insurance policy and other assets totaling 100 million yen (about 540.000 euros), the trial was told.
Watch the moment Abe was shot
Yamagami said he was angry with Abe after seeing his recorded message at an event organized by the church in 2021.
He said he originally intended to attack church officials, not Abe.
Journalist Suzuki recalled the disbelief on Abe's widow's face when Yamagami said her husband was not his main target.
Her expression "remains clearly etched in my memory," Suzuki says.
"She looked shocked, as if asking: Was my husband just a means to resolve a personal score with a religious organization? Is that all?"
In an emotional statement read out in court, Akie Abe said the grief over the loss of her husband "will never be eased."
"I just wanted him to stay alive," she said.
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What is the Unification Church?
Founded in South Korea, the Unification Church came to Japan in the 1960s.
To increase the number of believers, she maintained connections with politicians, researchers say.
Although not a member, Abe, like several other Japanese politicians, appeared at church-related events.
His grandfather Nabusuka Kishi, also a former prime minister, was close to the church because of its anti-communist views, it is said.
In March 2025, a Tokyo court stripped the church of its status as a religious organization, ruling that it had forced believers to buy expensive items by exploiting their fears for spiritual well-being.
The church has also been at the center of controversy for organizing mass weddings involving thousands of couples.
Yamagami's sister, who was a defense witness at the trial, gave emotional testimony about the "difficult situations" for her family members because of her mother's deep connection to the church, Suzuki recalled.
"It was a very emotional moment, almost everyone in the audience was crying," says the journalist.
However, prosecutors argued that there were illogicalities in Yamagami's reasons for redirecting his resentment toward the church onto Abe.
The judges also suggested that they had difficulty understanding the defense's claims.
People who followed the trial are divided on whether Yamagami's family circumstances would justify a reduced sentence.
"It's hard to dispute the prosecution's argument that Abe did not directly harm Yamagami or his family," Suzuki says.
He believes Yamagami's case shows how "victims of social problems are driven to commit serious crimes."
"This chain must be broken, we must properly investigate why he committed the crime," says Suzuku.
Rin Ushiyama, a sociologist at Queen's University Belfast, says sympathy for Yamagami is largely rooted in "widespread distrust and antipathy in Japan towards controversial religions such as the Unification Church."
"Yamagami was certainly a 'victim' of parental neglect and economic problems caused by the Unification Church, but that does not explain, let alone justify, his actions," Ushiyama says.
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