Mother of Abe shooting suspect went bankrupt, religious group confirms

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:36 JST, July 11, 2022

The mother of Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has been a member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification — the former Unification Church — since around 1998, the group said at a press conference on Monday.

According to the Nara prefectural police, Yamagami has told them that his mother “donated a large amount of money to the religious group and went bankrupt, so I had to make sure I punished [the group].”

At the press conference held in Tokyo, Tomihiro Tanaka of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification said, “It’s true that Yamagami’s mother went bankrupt in around 2002.” Tanaka said the group would fully cooperate with the police investigation.