When the Assassin Becomes the Martyr: Japan's Trial of Shinzo Abe's Killer and the Curious Case of the Mainichi Shimbun

The Japanese newspaper apologized for describing the murder as having “social significance,” but continues its biased reporting about the Unification Church. by Massimo lntrovigne

Tetsuya Yamagami is arrested after the assassination of Shinzo Abe (1954-202 2). Screenshot.

By now, most non-Japanese readers may vaguely recall the shocking assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022. W hat t hey may not know is that the trial of his killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, is shaping up to be less about the m urder of a statesman and more about the moral indictment of a religious minority. Welcome to t he surreal courtroom theater where the defendant is recast as a tragic anti-hero, and the real target is not the man he shot. but the church he loathed.

Yamagam i’s motive, or so he claimed, was not political. It was personal. He hated t he Unificat ion Church (now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification)-a g ro up his mother j oined decades ago. She reportedly donated excessively, leading to her bankruptcy in 2002. Note that the financial collapse happened twenty years before the assassination. Yamagami himself was never a member. But in 2022, he decided to take revenge-not on his mother or the church, but on Abe, who had been supported by the g ro up and expressed some sympathy for it.

When such a prominent public figure is assassinated, one might expect the media to focus on t he act of murder. But in Japan, the narrative took a sharp detour. Fueled by long-standing opponents of the Unification Church, the press began to frame the story as a cautionary tale about the plight of the “shukyo nisei”-second-generation members of religious movements. Yamagami, in th is version, became the poster child for religious trauma. The assassin was not a criminal, but a victim.

Notorious anti-cult journalist Eight Suzuki even suggested that the murder may be one of those “cases w here the victim’s conduct was found to have provoked the offense,’’ urging to “examine the conduct of Shinzo Abe as a politician and his relationship w ith t he Unificat ion Church”-as if Abe’s support for a religious g roup were a provocation that somehow justified a bullet.

While a series of measures were taken against the Unification Church, including a fi rst- degree decision of dissolution (currently under appeal) last March, anti-cult lawyers launched a class action suit o n behalf of these “nisei.” The result? Eight plaintiffs. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of second-generation members publicly affirmed their loyalty to the church. The disgruntled minority was j ust t hat: a m inority. But in the media echo chamber, they became the voice of a generation.

Enter the “Mainichi Shimbun,” o ne of Japan’s major newspapers, which recently announced a new series o n the Abe assassination trial. The teaser described the murder as having “social significance”-a phrase that ignited a firestorm on line. Critics rightly asked: since w hen does gunning down a former Prime Minister qualify as socially meaningful? Is this journalism or a eulogy for terrorism?

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“fvtainichi Shimbun” newsletter. “We will revisit the incident’s social significance.” From X

Faced w ith backlash, Mainichi issued a half-hearted apology for its “inappropriate expression.” But the damage was done. The newspaper’s long-standing campaign against the Unification Church-th inly veiled as investigative reporting-was now openly aligned with the defense strategy of Yamagami’s legal team, w hich wants to turn t he trial of a murderer into a trial of a religion.

To its credit, the prosecution is trying to keep the focus on the c rime. They want to exclude testimonies about t he Unification Church and concentrate on the fact that Yamagam i killed a public figure in broad daylight. But the defense, backed by anti-cult activists and sympathetic scholars, is pushing hard to make the church the vi llain.

The Unification Church is no stranger to controversy. It s theology is unconventional, its lifestyle differs from mainstream Japanese society’s, and its morals and politics are more conservative than those of “Mainichi Shimbun.” But none of that j ustifies murder. And none of it explains why a man w ho committed a premeditated assassination is being recast as a tragic product of religious dysfunction.

This is not j ust a Japanese story. It’s a cautionary tale for all democracies. When media outlets abandon neutrality and adopt the grievances of activists, whe n courts are pressured to litigate ideology instead of law, and when murderers are rebranded as martyrs, we risk turning justice into baroque theater.

The Mainichi Sh imbun may have apologized for its word ing, but don’t expect its campaign to stop. The paper has invested years in attacking the Unification Church. Now, with the trial of Yamagami, it has found its perfect stage. The roles are reversed: the killer becomes the victim, and the church becomes the accused.

In t he end, this trial will not j ust decide Yamagami’s fate. It w ill test whether Japan’s legal system can resist the seductions of narrative and uphold the principle t hat justice is not a popularity contest. In the age of media activism, even murder can be rebranded-if the story is compelling enough.

TAGGED WITH: JAPAN, RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, UNIFICATION CHURCH

Massimo lntrovigne Massimo lntrovigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. lntrovigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the lnterdisci12linary Journa l of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Relig)Q. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, w ith a special focus on d iscrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-012eration in Euro12e (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty. instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

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