Tetsuya Yamagami pleaded guilty when the trial began in Nara in western Japan on Tuesday. The 45-year-old is charged with murder and offenses against the firearms law after allegedly shooting Abe dead with a homemade weapon.
Everything is true, he says.
Yamagami's motive is said to have been Abe's alleged connection to the powerful Moon movement (Unification Church), which the murderer's mother gave large sums of money to and thus made the family bankrupt. After the murder in 2022, a court in Tokyo decided earlier this year that the movement must be dissolved.
Shinzo Abe was Japan's prime minister in two rounds, 2006–2007 and 2012–2020. He was shot dead during a campaign meeting in Nara.
The trial is expected to continue until mid-December, according to Kyodo News.
