The mother of the man arrested for the killing of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is a member of the Unification Church, the church's Japan head says
The Unification Church was founded in Korea in the 1950s by Sun Myung Moon, a divisive figure who died in 2012.
"The mother of the suspect Yamagami belongs to our church and she has been attending our events about once a month," Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the church in Japan, told reporters at a hastily organised press conference in Tokyo. Tanaka said any donations she made were being investigated by police and he could not comment further, pledging to co-operate with investigators.
It is believed to have hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, especially in Japan and the United States, and its teachings are based on the Bible but with new interpretations.
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