Short answers, pulled from the story.
Tetsuya Yamagami was a forty-one-year-old unemployed man who assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on the 8th of July 2022 in Nara. He fired a homemade shotgun at Abe during a campaign speech and was immediately restrained without attempting to escape.
Tetsuya Yamagami killed Shinzo Abe because he blamed the Unification Church for his family's financial ruin and the death of his brother. His father died by suicide in 1984 and his brother died by suicide in 2015 after losing his eyesight due to untreated lymphoma caused by the family's bankruptcy.
Tetsuya Yamagami built a homemade shotgun using fertilizer and YouTube tutorials while renting a garage in Nara from November 2021 to February 2022. The weapon used a battery to ignite gunpowder with an electric current and was test-fired at wooden boards and in the mountains of Nara Prefecture.
Tetsuya Yamagami was charged with murder, violations of the Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law, and violations of the Public Office Election Law. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on the 21st of January 2026 after admitting to killing Abe during the first hearing in Nara.
Tetsuya Yamagami's mother joined the Unification Church in August 1991 and donated over 100 million yen, which led to the family declaring bankruptcy in 2002. Yamagami believed the church ruined his life and sent a letter to a journalist in 2022 stating his desire to kill the entire Moon family.
Tetsuya Yamagami received sympathy and admiration from supporters who sent him gift money and messages on his 42nd birthday on the 10th of September 2022. His Twitter account gained over 45,000 followers after his letter was leaked on the 17th of July 2022, and online petitions called for reducing his sentence.