Shinzo Abe killing: Why a religious group has been put in the spotlight

“I feel disgusted which i can relate to your pet but I can understand how he became remote in society, ” says one man, whose mother is part of a religious company, so he only wants to be known by his Tweets handle – @syuukyou2sei.

When Tetsuya Yamagami confessed that he decided to kill Japan’s former prime ressortchef (umgangssprachlich) because of Shinzo Abe’s ties to a particular religious group, the phrase “Shukyo Nisei” started trending on social media.

The term literally translates to “religion second generation”. It refers to children associated with parents who have joined a religious team.

“I feel furious that Yamagami has put the spotlight on all of us in the worst probable way, ” @syuukyou2sei, who grew up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ belief, says.

“I wasn’t allowed to celebrate birthdays. I wasn’t permitted to sing a nationwide or school anthem. I was forced to be part of their campaign to spread their belief. ”

When contacted by the BBC, the spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan said they “respect the right of each individual to choose what they want to trust in”, but “a parent’s right to educate one’s child depending on his or her own perception is internationally recognised”.

The moment he turned 18 years old, @syuukyou2sei severed ties with his mother.

He says he doesn’t get stigmatised because he doesn’t tell people about her. But something as unimportant as a colleague wondering why he wasn’t close to her could make him feel lonely.

“No one desires to be able to understand how Yamagami feels because what he has done will be despicable. But I could imagine how he ended up holding a grudge against other people. ”

The Family Federation for World Serenity and Unification — formerly named the Japan Unification Cathedral – has given that confirmed that Yamagami’s mother has been a member since 1998.

She reportedly joined right after her husband had taken his own life, making her to raise three young children on her own.

Yamagami told law enforcement he blames the girls for bankrupting their mother.

According to attorneys who represent claimed victims, its followers lost at least 5. 4bn yen ($39m; £33m) in the past five years. The organisation’s Japan chairman Tomihiro Tanaka denies driving its members in making donations.

“It is a religious team which started in Southern Korea, entered The japanese in the 1960s and has a very sophisticated money-making operation, ” religion journalist Eito Suzuki explains.

“The group has caused societal problems with its spiritual-pressure sales and mass weddings, but politically it is anti-communist, in fact it is close to Japan’s conservative politicians. ”

Mr Tanaka says the girls has since transformed, but lawyers declare otherwise – saying they still obtain many complaints towards them.

Most often, the group sends its followers as staff members to work at politicians’ offices, according to Mr Suzuki.

Attorneys representing its supposed victims say there have been hundreds of its believers working for lawmakers : often unpaid — in the 1990s.

Mr Abe’s connection to the religious group has been rumoured especially on social media.

Part of the reason is because his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi – who was also Japan’s prime minister – was thought to have been close to this due to its anti-communist nature. And when Mr Abe appeared remotely being a speaker at an Unification Church-related event last September, Yamagami has been convinced.

While there is absolutely no excuse for doing such a heinous crime, @syuukyou2sei says Japan has long overlooked the human rights from the children of members of these religious organizations.

“There is no system to protect us. The constitutional rights – to believe in whatever religion we choose in order to – are oppressed, and yet, the government has long treated it as ‘a family’s problem'”, he stated.

The difficulty in getting social support also pertains to others in difficulty.

Forty-one years old plus unemployed, Yamagami also belongs to what is known here as “the employment ice age”.

He struggled to get a full-time job, and aside from several years which he spent at Japan’s self-defence-force, he hopped around irregular work.

Japan is really a society where going to an university and becoming a permanent worker has traditionally been defined as success.

People are often identified as owned by a “winning” group (“kachi-gumi”) or “losing” team (“make-gumi”). Since Yamagami’s background has been revealed, online commenters were quick to guage him as “a typical losing team”.

Many of Japan’s recent violent criminal offenses such as the ‘Joker attack’ were committed by unemployed men who held a grudge against modern society.

“When those within need try and get help, they are asked to work harder, and if that doesn’t work, their families are expected to support them, ” says Hiroto Watanabe of a non-profit-organisation Posse, which concentrates on youth poverty and labour issues.

“But if their families are broken up for whichever reasons – like the case of Yamagami, there is no one to assist them and that is when folks feel abandoned by society, ” he added.

Japan is one of the world’s most secure countries but each few years, it is shaken by violent criminal offenses like these.

And Yamagami’s action offers highlighted another group of people who feel desperately ignored and put aside in society.