Shinzo Abe Shooting Investigation Set to End

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:32 JST, February 13, 2023

NARA — The Nara prefectural police on Monday sent additional charges to prosecutors against Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspect in the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to investigative sources. The latest move is expected to conclude the investigation into the high-profile shooting.

The additional charges include violations of the Ordnance Manufacturing Law and damage to property, the sources said. Yamagami, 42, has already been indicted over murder and other charges in the incident in which Abe, 67, was fatally shot when delivering a stump speech in Nara.

According to the sources, the police have confirmed that the gun used in the shooting and several other guns seized from Yamagami’s residence had lethal capability after analyzing their structure. As fertilizer and other materials used to make gunpowder were also found, the police deemed that Yamagami violated the Ordnance Manufacturing Law and the Explosives Control Law.

During their investigation, the police also found six holes believed to have been made by bullets on the exterior wall of a building in Nara that houses a facility affiliated with the Unification Church, officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Investigators said Yamagami told them that he had fired a homemade gun before dawn of July 7 last year, the day before the fatal shooting of Abe.

Based on footage from security cameras in the vicinity and other factors, the police sent the case on Yamagami to prosecutors on suspicion of damaging the building.

Yamagami was indicted over charges of murder and violation of the Firearms and Swords Control Law on Jan. 13 in the killing of Abe using a homemade gun near Kintetsu Railway Co.’s Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara on July 8. When Abe was shot, he was delivering a stump speech for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate during campaigning for the House of Councillors election.