The man accused of murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pleaded guilty on Tuesday, three years after the murder in broad daylight.
45 year old Tetsuya Y. Admitted in court to shooting Abe with a homemade gun during a 2022 campaign speech.
“Everything is true,” he said in court.
He is accused of murder and violating Japan’s firearms laws.
Shooter targets Abe over ties to Unification Church
Abe was shot with a homemade gun on July 8, 2022, while rallying near a railway station in the western city of Nara.
Tetsuya Y was arrested soon after the shooting.
He told police that he had targeted Abe because of his ties to the South Korea-based Unification Church, which he blamed for his family’s financial ruin.
He said his mother was pressured to donate approximately 100 million yen ($658,054; €564,366) to the Unification Church, considered a sect in Japan, which bankrupted his family.
The Japanese branch of the Unification Church acknowledged that the shooter’s mother was in fact a member, and said that Abe, while not a member, had supported the church in promoting peace.
Critics have long called the church a cult and questioned where it is funded.
The trial in Nara is expected to end in mid-December, according to Kyodo news agency.
Edited by: Kieran Burke