In Japan, Shinzo Abe suspect’s grudge in opposition to Unification Church is a well-known one

The day earlier than Shinzo Abe was assassinated, Tetsuya Yamagami despatched a letter saying that the Unification Church had ruined his life, “destroying my family and driving it into bankruptcy.”

Yamagami’s mom had been a member of the church for greater than 20 years, making prodigious donations over her household’s objections. “It’s no exaggeration to say that my experience with it during that time continues to distort my whole life,” he wrote to a blogger who lined the church. Japanese police have confirmed that he despatched the letter.

The subsequent day, Abe was useless, shot at shut vary with an improvised gun whereas campaigning within the metropolis of Nara, Japan.

Police have charged Yamagami with homicide, saying he was indignant at a “certain group” and determined to focus on Abe, the previous prime minister of Japan. Authorities haven’t named the group, however a Unification Church spokesperson mentioned that Yamagami was most definitely referring to them.

The July 8 capturing has thrust the church’s authorized troubles again into the nationwide dialogue, specifically its battles with households who mentioned they’d been impoverished by giant donations. Those funds had been amongst billions of {dollars} in income from Japan that helped finance a lot of the church’s international political and enterprise ambitions.

In one judgment from 2016, a Tokyo civil court docket awarded greater than $270,000 in damages to the previous husband of a church member, after she donated his inheritance, wage and retirement funds to the group to “save” him and his ancestors from damnation.

In one other civil case from 2020, a choose ordered the church and different defendants to pay damages to a girl after members had satisfied her that her youngster’s most cancers was attributable to familial sins. On their recommendation, she spent tens of hundreds of {dollars} on church items and providers.

Last week, church officers mentioned they’d struck an settlement in 2009 with the household of Yamagami’s mom to repay 50 million yen (about $360,000) in donations she had made. Yamagami’s uncle mentioned she had given no less than 100 million yen.

In the letter he despatched earlier than the capturing, Yamagami mentioned he had spent years dreaming of revenge, however had turn into satisfied that attacking the church would accomplish nothing.

Abe is “not my enemy,” Yamagami wrote, “he’s nothing more than one of the Unification Church’s most powerful sympathisers.”