TOKYO: The mother of the man arrested for the killing of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is a member of the particular Unification Church, the particular church’s Japan mind said on Mon (Jul 11).
Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, was identified by police as the suspect who approached Abe and opened open fire during a campaign talk on Friday, an attack that was captured upon video and surprised a nation where gun violence can be rare.
Yamagami believed Abe had promoted a religious group to which his mother made the “huge donation”, Kyodo news agency reports, citing investigative sources. Yamagami told police his mother went broke from the donation, the Yomiuri newspaper and other mass media have reported.
Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japan department of Family Federation for World Peacefulness and Unification, known as the Unification Church, informed reporters at a briefing in Tokyo that Yamagami’s mother was obviously a member of the cathedral. He did not provide her name.
Tanaka declined in order to comment on her contributions, citing the on-going police investigation.
Neither Abe nor the man arrested with regard to his shooting had been members of the church, Tanaka said. Abe was also not an agent to the church, Tanaka said, adding the particular church would cooperate with police around the investigation if questioned to do so.
Abe appeared at an occasion hosted by an organisation affiliated with the particular church last Sept where he delivered a speech praising the particular affiliate’s work towards serenity on the Korean peninsula, according to the church’s web site.
Reuters had not been immediately able to contact Yamagami’s mother and may not determine whether the girl belonged to any other spiritual organisations.
Law enforcement have confirmed which the suspect said he held a grudge against a specific organisation, but have not called it.