Tetsuya Yamagami

Tetsuya Yamagami is the 45-year-old man who assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022. He used a homemade gun to fatally shoot Abe during a political rally in Nara. Yamagami pleaded guilty to the crime. He is newsworthy because he was recently sentenced to life in prison, over three years after the assassination. The sentencing has concluded a trial that garnered significant public attention, partly due to the shocking nature of the crime in a country with low gun violence and the subsequent scrutiny of ties between politicians and the Unification Church. Yamagami has also apologized to Abe's family. The case remains significant as it forced a reckoning on security measures for political figures and exposed controversial links between political figures and religious organizations.