The alleged assassin of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was born into an affluent but troubled family. A glimpse of his painful childhood has led to a surprising amount of sympathy in Japan due to his mother's links to a controversial church.
“If he hadn’t allegedly committed the crime, Mr. Yamagami would deserve much sympathy. There are many others who also suffer” because of their parents’ faith, said Kimiaki Nishida, a Rissho University psychology professor and expert in cult studies.
“After my mother joined the church , my entire teenage years were gone, with some 100 million yen wasted,” he wrote in the typed letter, which he sent to a blogger in western Japan the day before he allegedly assassinated Abe during a campaign speech on July 8 in Nara, western Japan. “It’s not an exaggeration to say my experience during that time has kept distorting my entire life.”
In December 2019, he tweeted that his grandfather blamed Yamagami’s mother for the family’s troubles and even tried to kill her. “What’s most hopeless is that my grandfather was right. But I wanted to believe my mother.” “If our society had paid more attention to the problems over the past few decades, attack could have been prevented,” said Mafumi Usui, a Niigata Seiryo University social psychology professor and cult expert.
“Though I feel bitter, Abe is not my true enemy. He is only one of the Unification Church’s most influential sympathizers,” Yamagami wrote in his letter. “I’ve already lost the mental space to think about political meanings or the consequences Abe’s death will bring.”
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