Tetsuya Yamagami was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Nara District Court on January 21, 2026 for the murder of Shinzo Abe, who had served as Japan's prime minister. The killing took place in Nara on July 8, 2022. Yamagami was arrested the same day and was 45 years old when the sentence was imposed. He admitted the murder charge, and the trial turned on the penalty and on one of the weapons-law counts. The verdict came more than three years after the killing, at the end of a trial before a panel that included lay judges.
The former prime minister is the only victim in the case. The defense appealed to the Osaka High Court on February 4, 2026, so the conviction is not yet final.
Yamagami was arrested on July 8, 2022. After a psychiatric evaluation found him fit to stand trial, prosecutors in Nara indicted him on January 13, 2023 for murder and for offenses under Japan's weapons laws. The case was to be heard with the participation of citizen judges.
The indictment covered five heads: murder, a weapons-law charge, two further charges under weapons and explosives legislation, and destruction of a structure. Yamagami largely accepted the charges.
Pre-trial proceedings took close to three years. On October 2, 2025 the Nara District Court announced that its lay judge trial would open on October 28, that 18 hearings would follow before the end of the year, and that a verdict would be delivered at a nineteenth session on January 21, 2026.
At the first hearing Yamagami told the court that everything the prosecutors had read out was true. The defense did not contest the murder charge. It did contest one of the weapons-law counts, and the court rejected that challenge.
Prosecutors asked for life imprisonment and called the case an extremely grave incident that was unprecedented in post-war Japan. The defense asked for a term of no more than 20 years, arguing that his upbringing, shaped by the Unification Church, was closely tied to his motive.
On January 21, 2026 the court sentenced Yamagami to life imprisonment, adopting the prosecution's request in full. The court counted 800 days of pre-trial detention towards the sentence and applied the penal law as it stood before the introduction of the new detention penalty, because the offense predated the change.
On motive, the court accepted that Yamagami had intense anger towards the Unification Church and towards people connected with it, and that the family's difficulties were a background factor. It held that there was a large leap between that anger and the decision to kill, and so concluded that his upbringing had not had a substantial influence on the crime. It also found that the former prime minister bore no fault that could justify his killing.
After the verdict the defense said it would consult Yamagami about an appeal. On February 4, 2026 a lawyer for Yamagami confirmed that an appeal had been filed with the Osaka High Court, calling it an opportunity to correct an unjust ruling. The defense said it would seek a term of no more than 20 years and would again contest the weapons-law count it had challenged at trial. As of November 12, 2026 the High Court has not ruled.
The political consequences of the case reached beyond the courtroom: in March 2026 the Tokyo High Court upheld an order dissolving the Japanese branch of the Unification Church in a civil case brought by the education ministry.
The guilt of Yamagami on the murder charge is not in dispute. The matters open to review are the one weapons-law count that the defense challenged and the length of the sentence, both before the Osaka High Court.
July 8, 2022: Shinzo Abe is killed in Nara; Yamagami is arrested the same day.
January 13, 2023: Yamagami is indicted by prosecutors in Nara after a psychiatric evaluation finds him fit to stand trial.
October 2, 2025: The Nara District Court announces the trial schedule.
October 28, 2025: The lay judge trial opens; Yamagami admits the murder charge.
January 21, 2026: The Nara District Court sentences him to life imprisonment.
February 4, 2026: The defense files an appeal with the Osaka High Court.
March 2026: The Tokyo High Court upholds the dissolution order against the Japanese branch of the Unification Church.