On July 2022, the mother of defendant Yamagami Tetsuya, who shot former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo with a homemade gun and killed him, said on the 13th that she still has faith in the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church). Yamagami had long been displeased with his mother's Unification Church activities, and is known to have committed the crime out of resentment because the relationship between Abe and the Unification Church was friendly.
According to Asahi Shimbun and other Japanese media on the 13th, Yamagami's mother attended a hearing at the Nara District Court (district court) as a witness that day and said, "I still believe in the Family Federation (Unification Church)."
In what sounded like a nervous voice, she said, "I should have apologized right away, but I couldn't. I sincerely apologize for what my son did," and added, "I sincerely apologize to former Prime Minister Abe, Akie, and all the bereaved," the outlet reported.
She cited her husband's alcoholism as part of how she came to believe in the Unification Church. She went on, "In a difficult situation, after I started attending the church's morning meetings, my irritation was purified," and "When my husband and family learned that I was leaving the children to attend meetings and making offerings, they began to oppose it, and I was upset."
Yamagami briefly glanced toward the partition where his mother was, but kept his face down throughout her testimony.
Yamagami's mother became a Unification Church believer when he was in elementary school and is said to have donated about 100 million yen (about 950 million won) to the church, including her husband's life insurance payout. As a result, Yamagami is reported to have given up on going to college.
Earlier in the police investigation, Yamagami said, "Our life fell apart because of (my mother's) donations," and "I had a grudge against the church, so I targeted former Prime Minister Abe, who had deep ties with (the Unification Church)."
A little over three years ago in Nara, Nara Prefecture, in western Honshu, Yamagami approached former Prime Minister Abe during a House of Councilors election campaign and fired a gun. Yamagami's attorney has requested his mother, younger sister, and a religious studies scholar as witnesses to establish how his mother's religious life led to the shooting.