TOKYO, July 9, 2022—The assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, reportedly told police July 8 that he gunned down former prime minister Shinzo Abe not for political motivations but that it was about an undisclosed ‘religious organization’ and Abe’s relationship with it. Abe served as advisory to that religious organization, Nippon Kaigi, together with former finance minister Taro Aso for the ‘reconstruction of beautiful Japan’ by rallying the support of nationalist and rightwing lawmakers, businesses and sympathizers as its members. Abe also was an ardent supporter of the Unification Church – together with Donald Trump.
Japanese news reports said Yamagami and/or his mother made donations to Nippon Kaigi and/or the Unification Church, and as a result, their life had become a hand-to-mouth conditions – while Abe had been fattening his pocketbooks reportedly by accepting bribes from his supporters and chums, most notably the Moritomo and Kakei influence-peddling scandals.
Nippon Kaigi commands an impressive roster of members from many walks of Japanese society – literally all members of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party as well as a wide array of businesses and Abe’s electorate supporters such asToshio Motoya, the chairman of Apa Hotels Group. Motoya and his wife are pro-North Korea.
At a rally of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), a Unification Church chapter, in September 2021, Abe delivered an on-line message saluting the church’s governor, Hak Ja Han Moon, and extolled the family value and criticized gender equality – a clear violation of LDP ethical codes and Japanese political party laws. Trump also appeared on-line at the rally held in Korea.
Abe was the first to meet Trump after Trump’s presidential election victory in 2016. The meeting was believed arranged by the church’s Moon.
###
Insight Into the Future