Abe Shinzo’s Assassin Yamagami Tetsuya’s background, motives, and a brief history of the Unification Church in Japan

If sources are not specified, multiple sources have been used. All sources are listed at the end of this post.

Though Yamagami Tetsuya is a murderer, some voices in Japan are filled with sympathy toward him whether they supported Abe Shinzo, the Japan’s former minister and the victim, as a politician or not. On online media posts, comments, and social media, many expressed that “Abe should not have been killed, no one should have been,” but also that “Abe should not have endorsed any organizations operated by the founders of the Unification Church.” “Abe should not have recorded a video of himself supporting their mission.” In fact, the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales sent a letter to Abe Shinzo in September 2021, requesting him to refrain from publicly supporting an organization that’s been sued by number of Japanese citizens, as a former prime minister of Japan. However, the letter sent to the Diet members’ hall was rejected and returned. And another copy sent to Abe’s office in Yamaguchi was received, but there was no response.

Many people in Japan were also shocked to find out that Abe was connected to such a Church infamously known for many years as a “cult” group. Many did not know until now because the video was recorded only for the Church to be played during their gatherings. So, only followers of the Unification Church had a chance to see it. But it is now available for anyone to view on YouTube.

Controversies of the Unification Church

In the early 1990s, some famous athletes and actress joined the Church, and it was all over the news. It wasn’t a story just happening on TV. The Unification Church members were in everyone’s neighborhood. As one of the new religious groups with a short history, Unification Church was considered as a cult group. Yet, it was different in a way from other new religious groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soka Gakkai, or Aum Shinrikyo—which were also prevalent at the time. In those days, the Unification Church was already known to have many different schemes to get people into their organization and to eventually strip their wealth.

Growing up in Tokyo, I have only one story that I heard personally from someone who almost became a victim: my mom’s friend. First, she had a free palm reading from a follower of the Unification Church, who did not reveal their association with the Church. Then, they befriended her and went out for tea. She thought the story they were sharing about the spiritual world was interesting. Then on the next meeting, they asked her to buy an urn for $7,000 from them. She was told that it will make her ancestors happy, and that her daughter with mental illness would be cured. With such an enormous price tag, she did not buy it. However, those followers, the salespersons of the Church, threatened her that she will have a miserable life without the urn. She said that she didn’t have the money. Then they tried to make her buy a family stamp for about $2,000 instead and they surrounded her. Eventually, she was able to escape from them.

Another story I heard was from my mom’s other friend in the 1990s shortly after the following incident happened. She shared with us the experience of her coworker who had just lost her father at the time. She said that from out of nowhere, a couple of strangers visited her home, and talked about the spiritual world. To make a long story short, those followers, or salespersons, from the Church found out that her father passed away from somewhere, and they tried to take away the life insurance money. They said to her that any excess money she owned should be donated so it would console her father and she could live a better life, and tried to make her buy some religious goods such as urns, stamps, and amulets. After she spent some money, they pressured her to buy the bible that infamously cost $300,000.

Yamagami’s motivation and his handmade guns

Yamagami’s mother, who has spent the equivalent of over $1 million total on the Unification Church and went bankrupt, is still a fervent follower.

Having a grudge toward the Church, on July 8th, Yamagami assassinated Abe who was giving a speech to support a candidate for an upcoming election, only one station away from where Yamagami lived in Nara. He used a handmade handgun. He duct-taped three pipes together and each pipe contained six bullets. During the investigation, he said that he shot twice—two pipes out of three were used, and one of these two shots emitted 5 bullets. In the past, Yamagami had planned to target the head of the Church when they were visiting from South Korea. At the time, he had planned to enter the Church’s facility in Aichi with a Molotov cocktail, but he was not able to enter. However, he had visited that place again to use its exterior as an object to practice shooting. He also revealed during the investigation that he had practiced shooting in the woods every time he had completed making a new type of gun.

“The only people who will be saddened by the demise of the Unification Church are those who live to do harm in this world. Why hesitate? I, by risking my own life, will be the liberator of all those who suffer from the Unification Church.”

-Yamagami

On December 12, 2020, Yamagami wrote a comment on a blog site of one of the former followers of the Unification Church, Yonemoto Kazuhiro. It read, “The only people who will be saddened by the demise of the Unification Church are those who live to do harm in this world. Why hesitate? I, by risking my own life, will be the liberator of all those who suffer from the Unification Church.”

He thoroughly studied the structure of the Unification Church and concluded that “targeting [one of the founding family members] may work to [their other family members’] advantage. Therefore, it will not serve my purpose,” he wrote in a letter addressed to Yonemoto, postmarked the day before the assassination. He continued, “Abe is not the true enemy. He is just one of the most influential sympathizers of the Unification Church.” On this letter, he also included his Twitter account where several sources are now referencing his statements from.

Yamagami, 41, lived by himself in an apartment with a monthly rent of about $300. After his arrest, five different types of handmade guns were found and seized from his place. At the time of assassination, he was unemployed. His most recent job was at a factory as a liftman with a renewable 3-month contract starting October 2020. Sources said that his former supervisor confirmed that he had resigned from his job due to a health reason as of May 2022 after he was allowed to use up his paid leave in late April. During the investigation, Yamagami said “I only had savings that would have lasted till the end of July. I thought I needed to do something about it before then.”

“According to Yamagami’s older brother’s childhood friend, they used to play survival games with air guns with other friends.”

Yamagami’s affluent childhood

Born in 1980, he grew up during Japan’s golden “bubble” era. The country’s economy was booming, so was his family’s. His maternal grandfather owned a successful construction company, and a restaurant. Yamagami’s father graduated from Kyoto University—one of the two top universities in Japan. He was a geologist working for a private company. According to Yamagami’s older brother’s childhood friend, they used to play survival games with air guns with other friends, and Yamagamis’ air guns were the most updated pricy ones (News Post Seven).

Though they had an affluent lifestyle, in December 1984, when Yamagami was four, his father suddenly died. Yamagami was told that he died in an “accident inside a tunnel” at work. Ever since then, Yamagami’s uncle, who was Yamagami’s father’s older brother, promised the widowed mother that he will give her about $500 every month to support her family. At the time, Yamagami had an older brother and a younger sister.

Yamagami’s mother’s involvement with the Unification Church

Soon after his father died, Yamagami’s mother started associating with the Unification Church. The life insurance money for the father, about $500,000, were all donated to the Church in two separate transactions—$200,000 and $300,000. According to Yamagami’s uncle, she had donated $600,000 by 1994. Also, Yamagami’s Twitter post on January 26, 2020, says that the family lost all its asset money to the Unification Church when he was 14, which was in 1994.

His uncle said in an interview that he received a call from Yamagami’s older brother one day saying they had no food at home. Their mother was traveling to the Church’s headquarters in South Korea at the time. Their uncle and his wife visited Yamagami’s home with sushi to feed them, and also left money for them. Since then, their uncle started to send canned foods to them regularly.

In 1998, their mother’s father, Yamagami’s grandfather, passed away at the age of 70. Before his death, the grandfather was suffering from his declining business in the midst of the economic bubble burst, and was in extreme rage toward their mother’s excessive donation on the cult group, according to Yamagami’s Twitter post. Following his death, Yamagami’s mother automatically became the owner of their deceased grandfather’s business and inherited his assets. However, she eventually sold his construction business for about $200,000 and sold her home for another $200,000. She also sold his expensive golf club membership (for an unknown price), all to be paid to the Church. Other payments included fees to get a “special ancestral purification” that required about $7,000 per session. And Yamagami’s mother had done it at least four times.

The Church stated that she had become an official member of the Church in 1998. Yamagami was set to graduate from his high school in 1999, one of the top schools that had a high college enrollment rate. However, there was no college money for him nor his older brother.

Yamagami’s older brother

His older brother had a major operation that required the opening of his skull due to pediatric cancer. And a complication led one of his eyes to lose sight when he was a child. He was also disabled and had difficulty living without another person’s help.

Yamagami’s time at the Maritime Self Defense Forces

After graduating from high school, Yamagami had determined that he wanted to be a fire fighter and took the test several times. However, he failed each time due to extreme nearsightedness. Afterwards, he decided that he wanted to go to a trade school to become a public servant instead. To support his future, his uncle gave an extra $7,500 in addition to the monthly $500 he was already giving to Yamagami’s mother.

“During the investigation, Yamagami revealed that he learned how to craft a gun on YouTube.“

Yamagami did not complete the program at the trade school. Instead, he joined the Maritime Self Defense Forces in 2002 but left in 2005 when three-year contract ended. It was easy to assume that he had learned how to craft a gun while he worked there, but that was not the case. According to sources, person who was familiar with his position at the Defense Forces said that Yamagami was among the rare one or two out of 100 students who hadn’t been accepted into the advanced classes. Therefore, his work at the Defense Forces was consisted of menial jobs such as distributing letters. During the investigation, Yamagami revealed that he learned how to craft a gun on YouTube.

In December 2002, shortly after Yamagami entered the Maritime Self Defense Forces, his mother officially filed for bankruptcy. Yamagami attempted to commit suicide in 2005 at the dorm at the Defense Forces station. According to the officer who was handling the situation, his mother was out of touch at the time. And his uncle told sources that his mother was in South Korea to participate in a 40-day spiritual training with the Church.

Right before his attempt to commit suicide, Yamagami had changed the beneficiary of his life insurance from his mother to his older brother. Together with the details of the counselling notes taken at the hospital, the uncle stated that Yamagami’s attempt was to support his disabled brother and his younger sister financially.

Total reported victims of the Church in Japan are 34,500 with $1.237 billion in total

The uncle was aware of the total amount of money Yamagami’s mother had paid to the Church. His wife, who was also aware of it, had a written record of all the money her husband, Yamagami’s uncle, had given to Yamagami’s mother to support her. Yamagami’s uncle had repeatedly sent claim letters to the Church requesting the details of the payments they received from Yamagami’s mother. In the end, the Church asked for a pardon with “settlement money” in the amount of $500,000. Despite all the efforts to get only about a half of the money back, when the mind-controlled mother received the money from the uncle, it went right back to the Church.

According to the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, from 2017 to 2021, there were claims against the Unification Church totaling $54 million. From 1987 to 2021, there were 34,500 cases of claims that totaled about $1.237 billion. The National Network said that those numbers are those who consulted them. So, the number of victims who consulted other organizations or have never consulted are not included.

Various names for the same organization

Toitsu Kyokai, or the Unification Church, otherwise known as Godo Kyokai or Godo Kekkon, had numerous fraud complaints filed against them over the past 40 years. To revive its image, it requested to change its registered name in Japan to Sekai Heiwa Toitsu Katei Rengou (Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) in 1997. Though it had been denied for more than 15 years, Japan’s Cultural Affairs finally approved its name change in 2015. This organization also has several other branches under different names. In 2022, all news media I came across called the Church “Kyu Toitsu Kyokai,” with Kyu meaning “former.”

Loss of his brother

2015 was also the year Yamagami’s older brother died. He committed suicide at home. Despite all the money the mother spent on the “spiritual cleansing” for her family, the spell never worked. It only worsened.

How the Unification Church started in Japan

When the founder of the Unification Church, which originated in South Korea, planned to open the Japan division of his organization, International Federation for Victory over Communism, in 1968, Abe’s grandfather and Japan’s former prime minister, Kishi Nobusuke was involved. Kishi, along with several other politicians, helped promote the International Federation for Victory over Communism. And the first Japan headquarters of the Unification Church opened in Shibuya, right next to Kishi’s home, within the same lot and the same address.

According to the statement of a former follower, the Church often used a picture of Kishi shaking hands with the founder of the Church to make people in Japan believe in the Church. So, people who were involved in the Church or studying the history of the Church knew the connection between the Unification Church and Abe. So did Yamagami. However, this is yet another fact that many Japanese citizens are finding out now for the first time. If Abe was not assassinated, it’s possible that it would have never been surfaced.

***

* Exchange rate used for all numbers is US $1 to 100 Yen since today’s exchange rate of $1 to 134 yen will not be accurate to determine the equivalent dollar amount of the 1980s and 90s.

* All names are written with the family name first, as it is the Japanese custom.

* Sources to be followed at the bottom.

Sources:

Family Members of Unification Church Victims Association

National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales

Aera Magazine

Bunshun Magazine (Interview with the uncle)

Chunichi

FNN Prime Online Live

Fuji News Network

Kansai TV News

Mainichi Shimbun

News Post Seven

Nikkei

NTV

President Online

Sankei

Yamagami’s Twitter account @333_hill

Recommended additional reading

How Abe and Japan became vital to Moon’s Unification Church. The Washington Post.