Tetsuya Yamagami
Tetsuya Yamagami is a Japanese Navy veteran who assassinated Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan, on 8 July 2022, in Nara. A resident of Nara, he was arrested at the scene of the assassination. At the time of his arrest, he was 41 years old, had no prior criminal history, and was unemployed.
His criminal trial began in Nara on 28 October 2025. Yamagami was sentenced to life imprisonment on 21 January 2026.
Personal life
Yamagami was born on 10 September 1980 in Mie Prefecture to affluent parents who ran a local construction business. Yamagami's family moved to Higashiosaka. Described as quiet and reserved in high school, he wrote in his graduation yearbook that he "didn't have a clue" what he wanted to do in the future. Yamagami had been struggling since childhood with the Unification Church, of which his mother had become a member since 1991. After the death of his maternal grandfather, his mother inherited ownership of the family properties and family business. She had donated more than 100 million yen to the UC and declared bankruptcy in 2002 when Yamagami was 21 years old.Yamagami graduated from Nara Prefectural Koriyama Senior High School in 1998, with plans of becoming a firefighter, but was unable to pass a required test due to his near-sightedness. Yamagami did not attend university due to his mother's insistence on donation to find salvation for his ill and suicidal older brother, and instead attended a vocational school with financial support from his uncle Tōichirō, a since-retired lawyer.
Relatives
Father and older brother
Yamagami's father graduated from faculty of engineering, Kyoto University in 1970. He died of suicide by jumping in 1984 when Yamagami was four years old. In Yamagami's mother's court testimony, he suffered alcoholic addiction and depression due to work-related issues.Yamagami's older brother, who was about one year older than him and had a longtime struggle with lymphoma which led to him losing eyesight in one eye, was not able to afford medical treatment; he died of suicide in 2015. This greatly impacted Yamagami, according to his uncle. Yamagami's defense team revealed in court that he made a determination to live his life at least until his brother passed away.
Mother
Yamagami's mother and younger sister initially declined media interviews. At the time of Abe's assassination, they were approximately 70 and 37 years old, respectively. Several family losses had preceded the incident: Yamagami's maternal grandmother died in 1982, and his mother's younger brother later died in a traffic accident, events that reportedly had a significant emotional impact on Yamagami's mother.In her testimony during the first-instance trial of her younger son, Yamagami's mother stated that before her husband's death, for finding solace to distract herself from her husband's alcoholic addiction, she had already been involved in religious activities and making donations for 500 thousand yen. The monetary offering was opposed by her husband and other family members which frustrated her.
She joined the UC in August 1991 after being approached by a church follower. After explaining her husband's suicide and her eldest son's serious illness, she was advised that making monetary donations would contribute to the "salvation" of her family. She made an initial donation of 20 million yen, funded by her late husband's life insurance, and contributed an additional 30 million yen the following year. She further donated about 10 million yen for what she was told would ensure her late husband's peaceful afterlife.
Following the death of her own father, she sold the family home for roughly 40 million yen and donated the proceeds to the UC around 1996. In 1998 when her second son Tetsuya was 18 and considering university, she believed that making further donations was a higher priority, as her eldest son was exhibiting suicidal behavior. She declared bankruptcy in 2002 when Tetsuya was 21, but continued making smaller donations to the UC thereafter.
A selection of text messages that Yamagami sent to his mother in 2012 while she was traveling in South Korea, where the headquarters of the UC was located in, was disclosed in court, indicating strong resentment toward her. In these messages he wrote, for example: "It is absurd that you pretend to be a normal parent," "Maybe I should kill you and take the insurance money," and "I will disgrace you and make you regret it."
After Abe's assassination in 2022, she stayed for about a month at the home of Yamagami's paternal uncle before moving alone to Osaka with assistance from the UC. She has remained a member of the UC and has expressed apologies to both Abe's widow, Akie Abe, and the church regarding her son's alleged crimes. Since his arrest, Yamagami has refused all contact with his mother, declining her requests for visitation at the detention facility, while continuing to read and acknowledge letters from supporters.
Shortly before Yamagami's first-instance trial in October 2025, his mother gave an in-depth interview to the Japan News Network, in which she stated that her faith in the UC and its teachings has only grown stronger since the assassination, while acknowledging that she had made excessive donations in the past. However, she rejected the view that her donations were the reason her son shot Abe, instead attributing the incident to the " familial love." She blamed herself over the assassination and said, "If I had not been a mother, things would not have turned out like this."
On November 13, she was called by Yamagami's defense team as a witness, where she apologized over his actions. Her physical appearance was concealed in court.
Paternal uncle
Yamagami's paternal uncle, Tōichirō Yamagami, is the older brother of Yamagami's father, and has provided many accounts about Yamagami's family. Tōichirō was 77 years old when Abe was assassinated. Originally working in the construction contractor industry, he obtained an attorney's licence and started his own legal consulting firm in Osaka. Despite being a lawyer himself, he appointed a team of defense attorneys to represent Tetsuya during his criminal proceedings. After Yamagami's father's death by suicide in 1984, he had been providing financial aid to Yamagami's family for about 20 million yen, up until 2020 when Japan was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yamagami's mother often asked him for money to donate to the UC while neglecting her children, to the point that he once threw a cup of tea on her and drove her away in a fit of rage.Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
Yamagami joined the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in August 2002; he was posted to Kure Naval Base and assigned to the destroyer.In February 2005, while in the military, Yamagami attempted suicide in hope of his siblings receiving his life insurance payout after learning that his mother neglected his brother to attend Unification Church events in South Korea. In an investigation report written by the JMSDF, Yamagami stated that his "life had been ruined by the Unification Church", and that his "brother and sister are in need", wanting to "help them by giving them my life insurance". He moved to the General Affairs Department at the JMSDF 1st Service School in Etajima. He was discharged from the JMSDF in August 2005 as a quartermaster with the rank of leading seaman.
Career after the navy
After the JMSDF, Yamagami worked for at least 10 different companies for 17 years until the assassination. In December 2006, he worked in a surveying company as a part-timer, and quit in June 2007. He remained unemployed for 2 years and, during that period, he obtained the licences of and real estate notary. Since then he mostly took short-term part-time jobs or dispatched labour and quit swiftly for personal reasons, usually after about half a year of employment. The longest job he remained at lasted about one and a half years.In October 2020, Yamagami started working as a forklift operator in Kyoto Prefecture for a manufacturer that operated in the Kansai region. There, he was described as quiet. He quit in May 2022 after claiming that he was "feeling unwell". After that, Yamagami briefly worked under another temporary staffing firm in Osaka Prefecture until he resigned in early June 2022.
Assassination of Shinzo Abe
On 8 July 2022, Tetsuya Yamagami appeared at the northern exit of Yamato-Saidaiji Station, Nara at 11:30 am, where Shinzo Abe was delivering a campaign speech for Kei Satō, a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the upcoming Upper House election. Abe was positioned inside a traffic island of the crossroad, facing away from the train station. Yamagami was behind Abe with a street separating them. Yamagami slowly approached Abe, unnoticed by Abe's bodyguards. Yamagami then discharged a homemade shotgun, seemingly not hitting anyone. Upon hearing the noise, Abe turned his head to look behind him. Yamagami took a few steps forward and fired a second round. Abe immediately displayed signs of severe pain and collapsed to the ground. Abe's bodyguards rushed towards Yamagami and restrained him on the ground.Criminal proceedings
Yamagami was arrested at the scene of the assassination on suspicion of attempted murder by the Nara Prefectural Police; the charge was upgraded to murder after Abe was pronounced dead. Yamagami was transferred to the Nara Nishi Police Station upon his arrest. He was described as being calm and having made no attempts to flee.Before any formal charges were brought against Yamagami, he was held at the Osaka Detention House and had been psychiatrically evaluated to determine if he was mentally competent to be indicted. The evaluation was initially set to end on 29 November, but was extended by a request from prosecutors to 6 February 2023. After an appeal by lawyers for Yamagami, the extension was reduced and set to end on 10 January.
On 24 December 2022, the Nara District Prosecutor's Office determined that Yamagami was competent enough to stand trial on the murder charge, based on factors including the capability of making the firearm allegedly used in the assassination.
On 10 January 2023, Yamagami was transferred back to Nara Nishi Police Station to continue his detainment. An additional charge against Yamagami of violating the Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law was added by the Prosecutor's Office. Three days later, Yamagami was formally charged with Abe's murder.
On 30 March 2023, the prosecutor's office added two more criminal charges, namely violations of and property damage, bringing the total charges against Yamagami to four. The charge related to the was dismissed because the prosecutors determined that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation.
On 28 October 2025, the trial against Yamagami began in Nara. Yamagami admitted to killing Abe during the first hearing, and his lawyer asked for any punishment to be automatically reduced because Yamagami's handmade gun did not fall under the criteria of the Firearms and Swords Control Act.
On 21 January 2026, Yamagami was sentenced to life imprisonment.