Tetsuya Yamagami

Rule Changes

Sentenced to life imprisonment; considering appeal (decision expected within two weeks of January 21 verdict)

Tetsuya Yamagami shot former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a campaign rally in July 2022 with a homemade gun. He built it after his mother's donations to the Unification Church—totaling $720,000—destroyed his family. On January 21, 2026, a Nara court sentenced him to life in prison, rejecting defense arguments that his traumatic upbringing warranted leniency.

Updated May 22