Tetsuya Yamagami Height, Age, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tetsuya Yamagami

• Tetsuya Yamagami was born in Mie Prefecture, Japan, to wealthy parents who ran a construction business.

•  His father graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Kyoto University in 1970. In 1984, his father died by suicide; at that time, Tetsuya was only four years old. His father was also into alcohol due to work-related issues.

• Yamagami was very quiet and reserved since childhood. He also had a difficult childhood because of the Unification Church (UC), which his mother joined in 1991. After his maternal grandfather died, his mother inherited the family property and business. She donated more than 100 million yen to the UC.
  

  Childhood picture of Tetsuya Yamagami

• During his middle school years, Yamagami was good at sports and was a part of the school’s Basketball club.
  

  Tetsuya Yamagami, when he was a part of the middle school basketball team

• He graduated from Nara Prefectural Koriyama Senior High School in 1998 and aspired to become a firefighter, but he failed the required physical test due to his poor eyesight.

• Yamagami could not go to university because his mother chose to spend money on donations to the church, hoping it would help his older brother, who was ill and suicidal. Instead, Yamagami attended a vocational school with financial help from his paternal uncle.

• In 2002, when Tetsuya was 21 years old, his mother donated more than 100 million yen to the UC and declared bankruptcy.

• Teysuya’s elder brother suffered from lymphoma since childhood, which caused him to lose sight in one eye. He was unable to afford medical treatment and died by suicide in 2015.

• Tōichirō Yamagami, Tetsuya’s paternal uncle and the older brother of his father, provided financial support to Yamagami’s family after the death of Tetsuya’s father. In an interview, his uncle mentioned that instead of spending money on the family, Tetsuya’s mother chose to donate most of the money to the Unification Church (UC). Despite being a lawyer himself, he appointed a team of defense attorneys to represent Tetsuya during his criminal proceedings for the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

• In August 2002, Yamagami joined the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).

• In February 2005, when he was in the military, he came to know that his mother was neglecting his brother’s medical treatment to attend Unification Church events in South Korea, so he made a suicide attempted suicide so that his siblings would receive his life insurance payout. In an investigation report written by the JMSDF, Yamagami stated that,

“My life had been ruined by the Unification Church, brother and sister are in need, wanting to help them by giving them my life insurance”.

• In August 2005, he was discharged from the JMSDF services as a quartermaster with the rank of leading seaman.

•  After that, Tetsuya worked in 10 different companies until 2022. In December 2006, he joined a surveying company as a part-time employee and left in June 2007. For the next two years remained unemployed. During that time, he obtained the license of an assistant surveyor and a real estate notary.

• Even after 2009, he mostly did short-term part-time jobs for the next ten years.

• In 2015, the death of his brother greatly impacted Yamagami. and grudge for the Unification Church (UC) also increased.

• In October 2020, Yamagami started working as a forklift operator in Kyoto Prefecture for a manufacturer that operated in the Kansai region. In May 2022, he quit that job too, claiming that he was “feeling unwell”.

• After that, for a month, Yamagami joined another temporary staffing firm in Osaka Prefecture and resigned in June 2022.

• In September 2022, Yamagami started researching the connections between the Unification Church and politicians because he believed his family’s suffering was linked to these ties.

• On 8 July 2002, Tetsuya Yamagami appeared at the northern exit of Yamato-Saidaiji Station, Nara, at 11:30 am, where Shinzo Abe was delivering a campaign speech for Kei Satō, a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the upcoming Upper House election.

• Unnoticed by Abe’s bodyguard, Yamagami approached Abe and discharged a homemade shotgun that didnt hit anyone. Upon hearing the noise, when Abe turned his head to look behind him, Yamagami took a few steps towards Abe and fired a second round that hit Abe, and he collapsed on the ground. Abe’s bodyguard rushed towards Yamagimai and caught him.
  

  Tetsuya Yamagami, when he was caught by Shinzo Abe’s bodyguards

• Yamagami was arrested at the scene of the assassination by the Nara Prefectural Police. He did not attempt to flee.

• Before any formal charge, he was held at the Osaka Detention House and had been psychiatrically evaluated to determine if he was mentally unfit. The mental evaluation was set to end on 29 November 2025, but it was extended to 6 February 2023, after a request from prosecuator.

• On 24 December 2022, the Nara District Prosecutor’s Office decided that Tetsuya Yamagami was mentally fit to face trial for the murder charge.

• During the investigation, Yamagami admitted that his first plan was to kill a senior leader of the Unification Church, not Shinzo Abe. For years, he blamed the church for ruining his family and even tried to find chances to attack its leader, Hak Ja Han, but he failed. He later changed his target after seeing Abe praise the church’s leader in a video in September 2021. From then on, he followed Abe’s public schedule for months. He tried to attack Abe in Okayama a day earlier but could not enter the venue, and when Abe’s schedule changed to Nara on 8 July 2022, Yamagami tracked his movements online and went there.

• He added that, from 2021, Yamagami began preparing weapons. He first thought about making a bomb; however, later he gave up that idea because he feared innocent people could be hurt, so he decided to make a gun instead. He also rented places to dry homemade gunpowder, spent a lot of money, and fell deeply into debt after losing his job.

• Police later found several homemade guns and other dangerous items at his home. Yamagami said he learned how to make weapons from online videos and tested them before the attack.

• On 10 January 2023, Yamagami was moved back to Nara Nishi Police Station to continue being held in custody. The Prosecutor’s Office added a new charge against him for breaking the Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law. Three days later, he was officially charged with the murder of Shinzo Abe.

• On 30 March 2023, prosecutors added two more charges for illegally making weapons and causing property damage, so a total of 4 charges were made against Tetsuya Yamagami.

• On 28 October 2025, Yamagami’s trial began in Nara. During the first hearing, he admitted that he had assassinated Shinzo Abe. His lawyer argued that the punishment should be reduced because the handmade gun he used did not meet the legal definition of a firearm under the Firearms and Swords Control Act.

• On 21 January 2026, Tetsuya Yamagami was sentenced to life imprisonment.
  

  Tetsuya Yamagami, while coming out of the court

• After Yamagami was arrested, some people in Japan and other countries showed sympathy towards him. In China, T-shirts with Yamagami’s photo were also sold online and worn by some people because of their anger toward Shinzo Abe’s views on history, war crimes, Yasukuni Shrine visits, and his support for Taiwan. His family also received gift money and items like food, clothes, and books from supporters through online gifting sites.

• Some people criticised Tetsuya Yamagami’s act and said the assassination could encourage copycat crimes. After nine months of Abe’s death, an assaination attempted was made on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. People believed the attacker may have been inspired by Yamagami.