Former Japan PM’s Accused Killer Pleads Guilty, Media Say
Tetsuya Yamagami leaving the Nara Nishi police station in July 2022.
Photographer: STR/JIJI PRESS/AF/Getty ImagesA man accused of killing former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by firing a homemade gun at him during an election stump speech in 2022, pleaded guilty to murder in his first trial hearing Tuesday, Kyodo and other media reported.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, is expected to seek leniency on the grounds that his family had broken down under the influence of the group formerly known as the Unification Church, according to Kyodo. He filed his plea in a proceeding at the district court in Nara, the temple city near Kyoto where Abe was shot.