crime

Lawyers say church caused suffering for Abe's alleged killer

23 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


23 Comments
Login to comment

The unification church is pure evil.

18 ( +19 / -1 )

Come on LDP!

Which members have some kind of connection with the Moonies?

Could it be most of you, if not all of you?

15 ( +16 / -1 )

Whether the church caused him suffering or not is irrelevant. I fear this a ploy to reduce the sentence of Abe’s killer.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

Yes, this means another 5 years off his sentence. He'll probably only get 10 years at this rate.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Unification Church should pay fully for Abe state funeral. If they don't Abe soul will not rest in peace and he will suffer in the world, isn't it what they believe !

6 ( +11 / -5 )

I still cannot find the part where the Unification Church directly contacted Tetsuya, emptied Tetsuya's bank account, and bankrupted Tetsuya. This got to be one of the biggest and lamest excuses for someone who was obsessed with building homemade guns and bombs.

-20 ( +1 / -21 )

I still cannot find the part where the Unification Church directly contacted Tetsuya, emptied Tetsuya's bank account, and bankrupted Tetsuya. This got to be one of the biggest and lamest excuses for someone who was obsessed with building homemade guns and bombs.

I have to very reluctantly agree with the above comment. Having said that, my opinion of the Unification Church is : they may not do anything bad, but they don't do anything that is good.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi denied at a regular news conference Tuesday that the governing party as a whole had relations with the church.

That was never in doubt. The problem lies with the way individual politicians have an incentive to make connections with such groups to get private donations.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Stop calling it a church, and call it what it is a Colt.

Not only in Japan, this colt has caused lots of suffering in the U.S. too, in 1982 he was found guilty of willfully filing false federal income tax returns and sentenced to 18 months in a U.S. federal prison.

Being anti-communism is welcomed, but using God as a cover up is a devious way to spread an ideology that has NOTHING to do with God or Christ.

Japan will someday catch up with scam and get it to comply or dismantle it.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

mark it is spelled Cult not Colt.

The church is in fault of lord of evil in the present church but the actions of Yamagami were only fueled by his accusations which may or may not be in direct fault of there of. Therefore the UC is not at fault for Abe's murder but the culprit is. What should be amended is new laws outlawing their presence in government and to have their money returned to the senders or lesser... have the pay taxes. Why are they exempt in the first place?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

To prevent any citizen belonging to any religious organization or group would require an amendment to the constitution which has never happened in 75 years.

What can change is the constitution of the LDP on donations. Maximum personal donations of ¥1.5 million per year. No donations from any religious group. Donations to the party, not individual politicians. Businesses donate ¥billions to the LDP.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Will modify and repost. Even though my first post had nothing insensitive.

Free Yamagami!!!.

Even though his action was unlawful, he has sacrificed himself for the countless masses who are suffering silently because of this church.

Who could have won a court case with such a powerful church backed by the elite politicians all over?

So somehow, Yamagami was selfless. Free him

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Mark above

A "colt " is a young male horse.

A "cult " is the word you want

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Lawyers say church caused suffering for Abe's alleged killer

It is pretty obvious that the mother must have been severely pressured and the son seeing this must have been in a severe state of angst.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

travelbangaijinJuly 30  08:33 pm JST

I still cannot find the part where the Unification Church directly contacted Tetsuya, emptied Tetsuya's bank account, and bankrupted Tetsuya. This got to be one of the biggest and lamest excuses for someone who was obsessed with building homemade guns and bombs.

If you've been following this story, you'd know it was his mother not him who was brainwashed by the UC and gave close to $1.0mil to them.

Even if it wasn't directly him, according to reports, his life and those of his family members were thrown into disarray due to the mother's relationship with the UC. She was an absentee mom, they had no money, he couldn't get the education he wanted. One can only imagine the discord and dysfunction in the family.

These aren't excuses for or condoning his assassinating Abe. He murdered someone. But we can understand what led him to commit such a crime.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Murderers are not innocent. He killed someone who wasn't a member of the church. We can understand the motive but not the reasoning. He has already admitted his guilt so unless they discover mental problems he will stand trial.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Yamagami was suffering because of the church

NO!!! He was suffering because what his mother did, it was his mother that made massive donations to the church, thus bankrupting the family and destroying his life. He has a mother complex, where she can do no wrong.

If this church did not exist, she would have found another one. Weak minded people always need somebody to rely on.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

A group of lawyers said Friday that the alleged assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of many victims of the Unification Church, which has long cultivated ties with high-level Japanese politicians.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the legal system.

wallaceToday  10:55 am JST

Murderers are not innocent.

There has been no conviction or final disposition by the court, so at this point he is not legally a murder.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Considering Abe’s links to the Yasukuni shrine, it’s surprising that he apparently had connections with this Christian Cult. I’m not even going to call them a Church. A cult pure and simple. He wasn’t religious whatsoever. He was pragmatic and went wherever the money and support came from.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

“The Leader is good. The Leader is great. We surrender our will as of this date!” - The Simpsons

2 ( +2 / -0 )

A wretched cult.

Same for the the Soka Gakkai, Sukyo Mahikari and Happy Science (The Institute for Research in Human Happiness). I'm sure there's many more to add.

All of them need to go.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites