Conspiracy Theories on Ex-PM Abe’s Fatal Shooting Still Circulated on Social Media, Including Existence of ‘True Sniper’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:30 JST, October 26, 2025

Three years have passed since the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and some people on social media are still claiming that the man indicted for the murder was not the sole perpetrator.

Instead, they claim there was a “true sniper.”

Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, was indicted on charges that include murdering Abe.

The former prime minister was fatally shot during a stump speech in Nara in July 2022.

Investigators have concluded that Yamagami was the sole perpetrator, and his defense team has also denied the involvement of multiple individuals.

The Nara District Court will hold the first hearing for the case on Tuesday.

Meeting held to find ‘truth’

Posts such as “He was not the sole perpetrator” and “It was an organized act of terror. The truth lies in power” continue to be made on social media.

The Yomiuri Shimbun used Social Insight, a tool for analyzing social media posts from data analysis firm User Local Inc., to examine posts on X with phrases such as “assassination of former Prime Minister Abe.”

The analysis found that more than 600,000 posts, including reposts, had been made since the incident took place as of this month. This year alone, the number of such posts so far totals about 150,000. Many posts in July this year, three years since the incident, were found to have used such terms as “truth” and “mysterious.”

In May, an organization claiming to have the goal of uncovering the truth of the incident held a meeting in Tokyo. The group’s 79-year-old representative, who is a former Tochigi prefectural assembly member, said several hundred people attended the meeting.

“The government is covering up the truth,” the man told The Yomiuri Shimbun. “We will gather information and take action.”

No proof of third-party involvement

The social media posts claim that some major points are suspicious.

They say that one of the doctors who attempted to save Abe at the hospital described injuries during a press conference that were inconsistent with the results of an autopsy conducted by the Nara Prefectural police.

Likewise, they claim a gunshot distinct from those made by the suspect’s homemade gun can be heard in video footage of the incident.

However, according to senior officials of the Nara Prefectural Police and senior prosecutors, the prefectural police carefully investigated whether any third parties were involved and found no proof that any were.

The investigators found that the wounds on Abe’s body were consistent with the shots fired by the suspect. Both the Nara Prefectural Police and the Nara District Public Prosecutors Office therefore determined that Yamagami had acted alone.

A senior official of the prefectural police admitted that the doctor’s explanation was different from the autopsy results. However, the official went on to say that the autopsy results are accurate, as they describe the state of the body objectively.

“It’s possible for observations made in an emergency while trying to save a patient’s life to be different from the results of an autopsy,” the official said.

Regarding the gunshots, another senior police official said, “We analyzed the video footage, but only two gunshots can be heard, both of which were made by the suspect.”

Yamagami is expected to admit in court that he intended to kill Abe. Therefore, the involvement of multiple parties will not be an issue at trial.

“No one other than the accused participated in the incident,” a member of his defense team told The Yomiuri Shimbun clearly.

A doctor who performed the autopsy on Abe and a police officer who analyzed the suspect’s homemade gun are among those who are scheduled to appear in the court hearings.

“These kinds of social media comments may tone down a bit once the accused admits to the charges and speaks about the details of the incident,” said Daisuke Tomo, professor at Kindai University and an expert on information ethics.