Trial begins for man accused of killing former Japanese PM Abe with homemade firearm

Audio By Carbonatix

TOKYO (AP) — The trial of the accused killer of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began Tuesday.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, appeared in court as U.S. President Donald Trump visits Japan for talks with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Takaichi, a conservative protege of Abe, highlighted their close ties in a meeting Tuesday with Trump, who called Abe a "great friend."

Broadcaster NHK said Yamagami pleaded guilty to the charges read by prosecutors. He appeared in a black top and gray trousers, with his long hair tied in a ponytail.

Yamagami allegedly shot Abe in 2022 with a homemade firearm during an election speech because of a grudge against the controversial Unification Church, which he believed had close ties to Abe and other Japanese politicians. He has told officials that massive donations his mother made to the church, which was founded in South Korea a year after the Korean War ended in 1953, caused his family's financial collapse.

Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister since World War II, is regularly mentioned by both Trump and Takaichi.

The trial in the western city of Nara is set to finish in mid-December, Kyodo news agency reported.

The Unification Church, which has powerful political connections around the world, has faced hundreds of lawsuits in Japan from families who say that it manipulated members into draining their savings to make donations. For decades, however, it largely escaped official scrutiny and maintained close links with the governing Liberal Democratic Party.