The mother of the suspect involved in the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly feels sorry for causing problems for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, also known as the Unification Church.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was immediately arrested They shot Abby in the back On July 8, 2022, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the religious group during investigations conducted by the Nara Prefectural Police.
suspect He told investigators that his mother bankrupt After making large donations to the religious group, eventually destroying his family.
Before the assassination, even Yamagami sent a message For a blogger saying the Unification Church ruined his life, “It destroyed my family and drove it bankrupt.”
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Yamagami’s mother has reportedly been making large donations to the church, of which she has been a member for more than 20 years.
“It is no exaggeration to say that my experience with her during that period continued to disfigure my whole life,” Yamagami wrote in a letter.
According to Yamagami’s uncle, his nephew was calling him for help when his mother left her children hungry and alone while attending church. mother said Donate 100 million yen (about a million dollars at the time) for the church.
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After going bankrupt in 2002, the The woman continued to donate For the Church in smaller quantities, under the principle of “world peace and unification”.
On July 11, the church issued a press release stating that donation amounts are set by individual members.
In the Yamagami letter, Abe was accused of supporting the church.
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Following this revelation, Yamagami’s mother, who has been staying at his uncle’s house since the shooting, apologized for causing problems to the religious group during a recent hearing at the Nara District Prosecutor’s Office.
The Unification Church in South Korea was founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954, and it opened its first overseas branch in Japan about five years later. I had the church Developed close relationships To the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party, formed by Nobusuke Kishi, Abe’s grandfather.
The Japan branch eventually became the church’s largest source of income.
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Over the years, the Church has drawn controversy for its involvement in business dealings and politics, with some critics accusing it of being a dangerous sect.
While Yagami’s remarks put the spotlight once again on the controversial church, Japanese Unification Church representative Susumu Sato expressed concern that church members could become scapegoats for Abe’s death.
While he admitted that some members encouraged followers to donate excessively, he claimed that the donors were mostly motivated by faith.
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