A man has pleaded guilty to murdering Japan’s former prime minister

A man accused of murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, told a court in the capital Tokyo that “it’s all true,” according to local media.

Yamagami used a homemade weapon to shoot Abe during a political campaign event in the western city of Nara in 2022.

Abe, who was known for his hawkish foreign policy and signature economic strategy that became known as “Abenomics”, was stabbed several times and died in hospital later that day, sending shockwaves around the world.

The assassination shed light on the ties between Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Unification Church, more popularly known as the “Moons”.

Yamagami reportedly told investigators he targeted Abe because he accused the 67-year-old of allegedly promoting the church, which he says bankrupted his mother and the entire family.

He claims his mother made donations, said to be around ¥100 million ($660,000), as proof of her faith in the church.

The claims have sparked investigations into the church, which started in South Korea and is known for its mass weddings, and led to the resignation of four ministers.

Then in March of this year a court in Tokyo ordered the church dissolved, stripping him of his tax-exempt status and requiring him to liquidate his assets.

But Yamagami’s mother – who is expected to be called as a witness – reportedly did not waver in her convictions, telling Japanese media that the killing made her faith stronger, according to the Japan Times.

Yamagami’s trial is not expected to end until January, with the defendant denying charges related to violating gun control laws. His lawyer told the court that the homemade weapon did not fall into the right category, Japan’s NHK said.

Japan, which has very low rates of gun violence, further tightened its laws on homemade weapons after Abe’s assassination.