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Yasuyuki Takai

【#1339】Ruling Overlooks Significant Social Impact of Abe Assassination

Yasuyuki Takai ／ 2026.01.28 (Wed)


January 26, 2026

　
The Nara District Court sentenced Tetsuya Yamagami to life imprisonment for shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to death. I believe the sentence should have been the maximum penalty, but given that prosecutors had sought life imprisonment, the ruling can only be regarded as appropriate.

Some media outlets and commentators have criticized the ruling, arguing that Yamagami should have received a fixed-term prison sentence with a reduced degree of culpability because he was forced into an unhappy life by the Unification Church. However, no matter what hardships a perpetrator may have experienced, such circumstances can never serve as an excuse for taking another person’s life.

Court rejects sympathy for defendant

Yamagami had initially targeted senior figures of the Unification Church but later changed the target to Abe, who, as admitted by the defendant, was not central to the issue. As his reason, Yamagami said he could not afford to wait for the visit to Japan by South Korean Unification Church executives due to his financial constraints. If so, why did he not target senior members of the Unification Church in Japan? If the motive for the attack was a grudge against the Unification Church, it would have been natural for him to target Japanese Unification Church executives rather than Abe.

Given that, Yamagami had no reason to attack Abe on the grounds that the Unification Church drove him into a miserable situation. It is natural and appropriate for the court to have dismissed the defense’s arguments and the emotionally sympathetic public sentiment toward the defendant, and sentenced him to life imprisonment as sought by the prosecution.

From another perspective, however, there is a significant problem with the ruling. The verdict found that the background to this incident was Yamagami’s belief that Abe was an influential figure within the church and in society. This means that Abe, even if he had had some connection with the church, would not have been Yamagami’s attack target unless he had been a former prime minister or a powerful politician.

In other words, it follows that there was a causal relationship between Abe’s attributes of being a former prime minister and a powerful politician with great influence and the shooting incident. However, in the section of the ruling that evaluates the circumstances of the crime and the gravity of the outcome, there is no mention whatsoever of the societal impact of the fact that the victim was a former prime minister and a powerful politician, or that the attack occurred during a campaign speech in a national election, which forms the foundation of democratic politics. The court merely states that “the victim’s life was lost, and public peace and safety were also severely harmed,” as if the case involved a private individual attacked in an ordinary crowd.

Protect politicians from attacks

Politicians often find themselves in situations where they must engage at close range with crowds that include people who hold opposing political views. In that sense, their lives and physical safety should be regarded as being at greater risk than those of ordinary citizens, and stronger legal deterrence is required to protect them. Given that this ruling treats politicians as if they were ordinary individuals, it is difficult to expect it to provide such deterrence. There is a concern that it could lower the threshold for attacks on politicians.

Coincidentally, the campaign for the House of Representatives election has begun. The police and each political party should ensure the highest level of security and protection so that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other politicians are not harmed during the campaign period.

Yasuyuki Takai is an attorney. Earlier, he had been a prosecutor.