Murder of Abe Was Terrorism ‒ Trial Must Say So

Japanese newspaper warns against not calling the murder of Shinzo Abe terrorism, quoting past mistakes of sympathetic narratives about the defendant’s personal circumstances 

Tokyo, 23^rd December 2025 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article.

[Series] Examining the Trial over the Assassination of Former Prime Minister Abe – part 1  

The Forgotten Essence of the Terrorist Act

Sympathy Echoing the “15th May Incident”

by a special reporting team / the editorial desk of Sekai Nippo

In July 2022, in the case in which former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (安倍晋三) was assassinated in Nara City, the lay-judge trial of defendant Tetsuya Yamagami (山上徹也 ‒ 45), who was charged with murder and other offenses, has concluded at the Nara District Court. Over the course of 15 hearings, the trial drew significant public attention. This series highlights the issues revealed by the proceedings.

See also Upbringing No Excuse as Abe Assassin Gets Life

See also Court Rejects Media Narrative in Yamagami Case

See also Justice Rendered, Questions Remain in Abe Murder

See also Yamagami Trial: Peril of Romanticizing Terror

More than three years and three months after the incident, the trial finally began. From the outset, the facts surrounding Abe’s killing were not contested; sentencing was the sole issue. The defense was widely expected to seek leniency by arguing that Yamagami’s mother had joined the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church), that her large financial donations caused family hardship, and that his disadvantaged upbringing formed the background to the crime.

In its closing argument, the prosecution stated that the defendant’s upbringing ‒ including his mother’s large donations to the former Unification Church ‒ had “an extremely limited influence on his decision-making regarding the crime.” It described the act as “an unprecedented crime in our country’s postwar history, in which a former prime minister was killed in full public view,” and emphasized that “resorting to violence in order to damage a specific organization is absolutely unacceptable in a state governed by the rule of law.” The prosecution sought a sentence of life imprisonment.

In response, the defense argued that “a perspective recognizing him as a victim of abuse involving religion is indispensable,” and insisted that “his upbringing is the most important mitigating factor.” The defense maintained that the sentence should be limited to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Although only one person ‒ former Prime Minister Abe ‒ was killed, given the grave social impact of the incident and past precedents, many had expected the prosecution to seek the death penalty. Commenting on the decision to seek life imprisonment instead, former prosecutor and attorney Yasuyuki Takai (高井康行) criticized the prosecution, stating:

“There is absolutely no consideration of how the killing of an important political leader in front of the public during an election campaign affected democracy. This calls the prosecution’s judgment into question.”

He added,

“Considering that the Nagasaki mayor shooting case sought the death penalty, it is only natural that this case should also warrant capital punishment; otherwise, the balance is lost” (Sekai Nippo, 19^th December).

The defendant’s crime may not have been “political terrorism” with a clear ideological agenda. However, by killing Shinzo Abe ‒ an influential politician who served the longest tenure as prime minister in constitutional history ‒ the act was clearly intended to shock society and damage a specific religious organization. That is nothing other than terrorism.

Italian sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne has stated, based on Western precedents, that the act was “nothing other than anti-cult terrorism,” and has criticized Japanese media for refraining from calling the defendant a terrorist.

Immediately after the incident, many people ‒ including politicians ‒ condemned the attack as a heinous act and a serious challenge to democracy. However, once the spotlight shifted to issues surrounding the former Unification Church, the essential nature of the incident as terrorism was forgotten.

It is evident from online posts that the defendant had a strong interest in the 2019 American film Joker. The film depicts a clown performer who, driven by his misfortune and resentment toward society, goes on a killing spree. The character becomes a kind of dark hero, inspiring others to imitate him and eventually sparking riots.

When the head of the religious organization visited Japan to give a lecture in 2019, the defendant attempted to bring Molotov cocktails into the Nagoya venue but was unable to enter and abandoned the plan. The day before, he had watched Joker in a movie theater. On Twitter, he posted about the film at least 15 times, expressing sympathy with the protagonist.

It is possible that the defendant identified himself with the film’s main character. This influence may be a crucial factor related to his motive and to the true nature of the crime. However, it does not appear that the police or prosecutors conducted any substantial interrogation on this point.

In April 2023, less than a year after the Abe shooting, then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (岸田文雄) was targeted during an election campaign event in Wakayama Prefecture, where a homemade explosive was thrown at him. Despite the fact that the Abe assassination inspired such copycat crimes, the media continue to avert their eyes from the incident’s essential nature as terrorism and instead emphasize sympathetic narratives about the defendant’s personal circumstances.

This abnormal phenomenon recalls the trial following the 15^th May Incident [See editor’s note 1 below] of 1932, in which young naval officers assassinated Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai (犬養毅). Immediately after the incident, the public sympathized with the prime minister, who had been unjustly killed. However, once the trial began and newspapers started reporting sympathetically on the defendants, public opinion shifted dramatically, and movements emerged calling the act a “righteous deed” and petitioning for leniency.

As a result, the three ringleaders ‒ originally facing the death penalty ‒ had their sentences reduced to 15 years’ imprisonment or less. This lenient treatment of terrorists led to a succession of further terrorist acts, culminating in the 26^th February Incident [See editor’s note 2 below] of 1936 and the eventual collapse of party politics. The trial over the assassination of former Prime Minister Abe ‒ a grave challenge to democracy ‒ must not become a “Reiwa-era [from 2019] 15^th May Trial.”

See also Upbringing No Excuse as Abe Assassin Gets Life

See also Yamagami Trial: Peril of Romanticizing Terror

See also Court Rejects Media Narrative in Yamagami Case

See also Justice Rendered, Questions Remain in Abe Murder

See also Press Release: Final Submission to Appeal Court

See also Rising Religious Persecution in SKorea, Japan

See also Dissolution, System of Faith-Breaking, Lawsuits

See also: A Dissolution Built on Fabrications, Speculation

See also Expert: “Is Dissolution Framework Constitutional?”

Featured image above: Nara District Court. Photo (2007): 663highland / Wikimedia Commons. License: CC ASA 3.0 Unp. Cropped 

[Editor’s note 1: The 15^th May Incident refers to the assassination of Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai (犬養毅) on 15^th May 1932, by a group of young officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, acting in concert with civilian ultranationalists. The perpetrators opposed party politics, which they viewed as corrupt and subservient to capitalist and foreign interests, and sought to replace it with direct imperial rule guided by the military.

Inukai was shot and killed at the Prime Minister’s residence. According to widely cited accounts, he attempted to reason with his attackers and asked them to “talk it over,” but was killed before any discussion could take place.

Initially, public opinion strongly sympathized with the slain prime minister. However, as the trial progressed, newspaper coverage increasingly portrayed the defendants as sincere patriots driven by self-sacrifice rather than as criminals. Thousands of petitions were submitted to the court requesting leniency, some written in blood, praising the defendants’ “pure motives.”

Although prosecutors sought the death penalty, the court ultimately imposed relatively light sentences: the principal offenders received prison terms of 15 years or less. This outcome significantly weakened civilian authority, legitimized political violence in the public mind, and encouraged the belief that extralegal action could be justified if claimed to serve the nation.

The 15^th May Incident is widely regarded as a critical turning point in the erosion of parliamentary democracy in prewar Japan.]

[Editor’s note 2: The 26^th February Incident occurred on 26^th February 1936, when approximately 1,400 Army troops, led by radical young officers, launched an attempted coup d’état in Tokyo. The rebels assassinated or attempted to assassinate key government and military leaders, including Korekiyo Takahashi (高橋 是清), who was then Finance Minister and had been prime minister, and occupied central government districts.

The insurgents claimed they were acting in loyalty to the Emperor and sought to purge the government of corrupt elites, restore “true” imperial rule, and implement radical reforms. Unlike the May 15 Incident, however, the Emperor firmly rejected the rebels’ actions and demanded their immediate suppression.

After several days of tense standoff, the coup collapsed. The leaders were arrested, court-martialed, and many were executed. The incident marked the final failure of overt military rebellion but paradoxically accelerated the consolidation of military dominance over Japanese politics.

Following the 26^th February Incident, political parties were effectively marginalized, civilian leadership was subordinated to the military, and Japan moved rapidly toward authoritarian governance and wartime mobilization. The incident is thus seen as the culmination of a trajectory that began with earlier leniency toward political violence, notably after the 15^th May Incident.]

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