Another surprising detail has emerged in the weeks since the controversial Church Unification murder, with the alleged assassin being revealed as a well-off individual who was left in rage, filled with neglected emotions and reliant on his mother’s generous donations.
Some Japanese have expressed sympathy and understanding for the 41-year-old, suspecting that those of a similar age may feel the pangs of recognition linked to their own suffering during three decades of social turmoil and economic malaise.
There have been suggestions on social media to send packages to cheer up Tetsuya Yamagami, who is currently in detention center, suspecting him to have ties to an unnamed religious group widely believed to be the Unification Church, because he told the police that he killed Abe, one of Japan’s most powerful and divisive politicians, requesting leniency in the prosecution. More than 7,000 people have signed a petition asking for leniency for Yamagami.
Experts say that the case has also highlighted the plight of thousands of other children who have faced abuse and neglect within the church.
According to Kimiaki Nishida, a psychology professor at Rissho University and an expert in cult studies, “If Mr. Yamagami had not allegedly committed the crime, many others who are also suffering due to their parents’ beliefs would be deserving of much sympathy.”
The governing party of Japan, despite maintaining cozy ties with the church, has also faced serious political implications due to legal disputes and controversies.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s popularity has plummeted since the assassination of Abe. He submitted his resignation to the national police agency chief on Thursday, taking responsibility for the incident. In an effort to purge members with ties to the religious group involved, he has reshuffled his Cabinet.
Since the 1980s, the Unification Church, established in South Korea in 1954 and has confronted allegations of cunning enlistment techniques and manipulation of followers into making substantial contributions, has previously shown animosity towards Yamagami on social media. Yamagami is currently under detention for psychiatric assessment until late November.
The police confirmed that a draft of Yamagami’s letter was found in his confiscated computer, which revealed that his one-room apartment was destroyed by the church due to the generous donations from his mother. Yamagami’s life and family were believed to be destroyed, as stated in his tweets and as seen in a letter reported by AP.
“During a campaign speech in Nara, western Japan, on July 8th, it is alleged that he assassinated Abe, a blogger from the same region. Abe received a letter, typed by the perpetrator, in which the following statement was written: “After my mother became a member of the church in the 1990s, I lost my entire adolescence, wasting approximately 100 million yen ($735,000).” Additionally, he expressed, “It would not be an overstatement to claim that my experiences during that period have continued to negatively impact my entire existence.”
Yamagami, who worked in a factory until recently, served in the navy for a period of three years. Unfortunately, his brother tragically took his own life. This devastating event shattered Yamagami’s dreams of attending college, prompting his mother to make substantial donations that ultimately led to the financial ruin of the family. In addition, she also joined the Unification Church. When Yamagami was just 4 years old, his father, who held a high-ranking position in a company established by the suspect’s grandfather, tragically ended his own life.
The mother donated it to the church, rather than her children. The uncle mentioned that he had to cease providing funds for food and education to the Yamagami children as the mother gave it to the church. When her father passed away in the late 1990s, she caused the family’s financial downfall in 2002 by selling company assets valued at 40 million yen ($293,000). According to interviews with the media, Yamagami’s mother contributed 60 million yen ($440,000) shortly after joining the church, as stated by Yamagami’s uncle.
According to his uncle, when Yamagami attempted suicide in 2005, his mother did not come back from a journey to South Korea, where the church originated.
The officials and the nearby legal organization declined to provide a statement. His uncle mentioned that she appeared extremely upset but continued to practice her faith. According to reports, Yamagami’s mother expressed regret to the prosecutors for causing inconvenience to the church due to her son’s alleged offense. Multiple efforts to reach out to Yamagami, his mother, his uncle, and their legal representatives were unsuccessful.
The church wrote about Yamagami, who is widely reported to have tweeted under the pseudonym “Silent Hill 333,” starting in October 2019, discussing matters related to politics and his distressing personal history.
“However, I desired to have faith in my mother’s words, that my grandfather was indeed correct. The most disheartening aspect is that Yamagami’s mother was held responsible for the difficulties faced by the family, and her own father even made an attempt on her life. In December 2019, he shared his thoughts on Twitter.”
He graduated from high school in 1999, during the “lost generation” of Japanese media, which refers to the age of the economy bubble implosion in the 1980s followed by the ice employment. He has struck a chord with Yamagami’s case because he is a member of the Japanese media, which has called it the reason for being stuck with low-paying contract jobs.
Unsteady employment and sensations of solitude and uneasiness are the challenges unmarried individuals who were raised during this era have to contend with, and Japan has experienced three decades of economic instability and social inequality, despite being the third-largest economy in the world.
Reportedly, there have been some notable criminal incidents in recent years, such as the mass killings in Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district in 2008 and the fatal arson attack on Kyoto Animation in 2016, carried out by individuals from the “lost generation” with complicated backgrounds involving their families and employment.
Many experts say that officials from schools and the government tend to provide little help in resisting interference on religious freedom grounds, and they often neglect this issue. The case of Yamagami has also shed light on the children of the Church of Unification.
Mafumi Usui, a social psychology professor and specialist in cults at Niigata Seiryo University, remarked that had our society given greater consideration to these issues in the last few decades, Yamagami’s assault could have been averted.
More than 55,000 people have joined a petition calling for legal protection, claiming that they were forced to join the church, which they describe as the second generation of followers.
Professor of psychology, Nishida, stated that Yamagami may have been motivated by the appearance of his video. He praised the church’s work for peace on the Korean Peninsula and its focus on family values in a video message in September 2021.
Amidst the pandemic, it seemed improbable for her to travel to Japan, therefore Yamagami allegedly informed the authorities of his intention to murder the spouse of the church’s founder, Hak Ja Han Moon, who has been guiding the church following Moon’s demise in 2012, but later changed his intended victim.
Yamagami expressed in his letter, “While I harbor bitterness, I do not consider Abe as my ultimate foe. He is merely among the Unification Church’s prominent supporters.” Yamagami further conveyed, “I am already bereft of the mental capacity to contemplate the political implications or the aftermath that may arise from Abe’s demise.”
The case between the church and the ruling party in Japan, which came to attention in 1964, has drawn uninterrupted focus as the Democratic Liberal Party has ruled Japan after World War II.
Last month, lawmaker Aoyama Shigeharu, a governing party faction leader, said that candidates could help secure votes by addressing the lack of organizational support from the church.
Due to their mutual opposition to communism, Tomihiro Tanaka, the leader of the church’s branch in Japan, refuted any claims of “political intervention” with a specific political party. However, he acknowledged that the church has established stronger connections with lawmakers from the ruling party compared to others.
The National Network of Spiritual Sales Lawyers has been providing legal assistance for financial disputes with the church for decades. They claim to have received 34,000 complaints involving a total loss of $900 million, exceeding 120 billion yen.
Tanaka alleged that the attorneys and the press were “harassing” adherents of the church.
At a recent conference, it was mentioned that two sisters in their 40s were compelled to join the former church, of which their mother was an adherent. The elder sister became a follower during her high school years, following her mother’s footsteps.
Following two unsuccessful unions arranged by the church, she expressed that she regained awareness through “psychological influence” and returned to Japan in 2013.
She expressed that, despite the wrongdoing, she could empathize with (Yamagami’s) anguish as someone whose life was ruined by the church as a second-generation victim.