By Kiyoshi Takenaka
TOKYO (Reuters) -A man accused of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe admitted to murder on Tuesday in the first hearing of the case, media said, three years after the assassination of Japan’s longest-serving premier stunned the nation.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, was arrested at the scene of the shooting in July 2022 after allegedly firing at Abe with a homemade gun while the former premier was giving a speech during an election campaign in the western city of Nara.
“It is true that I did it,” Yamagami, who appeared calm in a black sweatshirt and grey trousers with grown-out hair tied at the back, told the court, public broadcaster NHK reported.
A lawyer for Yamagami subsequently asked for any punishment to be reduced, saying the handmade gun he used did not fall within the category of handguns defined by Japan’s Firearms and Swords Control Act, NHK added.
The high-profile trial opened on the day of a summit meeting of two of Abe’s former allies, incumbent Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and visiting U.S. President Donald Trump.
“He was a great friend of mine and a great friend of yours,” Trump said as he shook hands with Japan’s first female prime minister.
Abe was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his 2016 election victory and the pair went on to forge a close bond over several rounds of golf in the United States and Japan.
Yamagami blamed Abe for promoting the Unification Church, a religious group against which he held a grudge after his mother donated some 100 million yen ($660,000) to it, domestic media have said.
Founded in South Korea in 1954, the Unification Church is famous for its mass weddings and counts Japanese followers as a key source of income.
The shooting was followed by revelations that more than a hundred lawmakers of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party had ties to it, driving down public support for the ruling party, which is now led by Takaichi.
After Tuesday’s first court session, up to 17 more hearings are set by year-end, before a verdict is handed down on January 21.
($1=150.7800 yen)
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Clarence Fernandez)
