Free Republic

TOKYO - The Unification Church in Japan on Monday (July 11) said the mother of the gunman who last week assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe was a member of the church. The gunman, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, has told police following the assassination that he targeted Mr Abe in his belief that the former PM was linked to a "religious group" that his mother had joined, paying exorbitant dues that left his family bankrupt and broken. In a news conference on Monday, Reverend Tomihiro Tanaka - who leads the Japan branch of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification,...

The man accused of gunning down Shinzo Abe believed the former Japanese prime minister was linked to a religious group he blamed for breaking up his family and causing his mother’s bankruptcy, police said. Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, told police his original intention was to attack the leader of the group — which authorities declined to name, The Guardian reported. “My mother got wrapped up in a religious group and I resented it,” the Kyodo news agency and other media quoted him as telling police. Japan’s longest serving prime minister was killed Friday during a campaign stop near a train station...

Japanese police officials have identified Tetsuya Yamagami, a resident of Japan’s Nara city in his 40s, as the person who attacked Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Yamagami attacked Abe with a shotgun while he was delivering a speech near the Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara City. Abe fell to the ground and was bleeding from the chest as per photos shared by Japanese news agencies. Abe was campaigning for the upcoming Upper House elections. Yamagami was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was brought to Nara Nishi police station. The police also confiscated the gun and the confiscated gun...