It has been more than three years since the gunshot sounded on the street of Nara. On the afternoon of October 28, 2025, the Abe assassination trial officially kicked off in the Nara District Court. The gavel sounded, and this high-profile trial kicked off. Outside the court, hundreds of people lined up in long queues in the early morning to draw lots to attend, and 727 people competed for only 32 public seats. In the court, the defendant Tetsuya Yamayama said,"Everything is true and I did it", making this case spanning three years. The case has finally entered the final stage. It has been so long since the incident was committed, and many key details have been revealed on the first day of the trial, and the answer will not be announced until January next year.
Delaying for three years is not intentional to wait, stuck on three hurdles
The trial progress of this case is nearly three times slower than that of similar cases. The average pre-trial procedure of ordinary major cases is 10 months, but it takes more than 30 months. The core stuck point is the mental appraisal that lasts for half a year-Japan's "Criminal Code" stipulates that the mental state directly determines whether to bear criminal responsibility. The prosecution will start the appraisal in July 2022, and it was not until the following year that it was confirmed that the crime was committed on the mountain. Criminal responsibility ability, this step takes most of the time.
More surprisingly, in June 2023, the court received an unknown box signed with a light sentence petition, and the procedure was forced to be suspended for the risk of investigation. In addition to the allegations that the two sides had repeatedly shaved questions around “religious influence”, “quality of guns”, the secret cleansing of the dispute point held dozens of meetings, the time slowed down a little bit. Some familiar with Japanese justice said: “This case involves too many social emotions, each step must be cautious and cautious.”
Pleading guilty in court but hiding controversy, homemade guns become key game points
Less than an hour before the trial, Mountain Chair also confessed to the accusations of murder, violation of the gun knife law, etc. In the face of the chief judge, he cried as a mosquito, and answered: "I did." "H, the defense quickly cast a controversial point: although they acknowledged the murder, but insisted that the self-made gun on the mountain was not within the scope of the gun knife law at the time, so it was not a "shooting crime."
In a statement, the prosecutor reassured the case: the mountain mother donated more than 100 million yen after joining a church, including her husband's death insurance, which directly led to family bankruptcy. After the father's death and brother's suicide, the mountain will be resentful against Abe, who has been linked to the church, the day before the case had attempted to attack failed, and moved to Narnia. The prosecutor stressed that this was "a serious violent incident post-war Japan never had", demanding a severe punishment; the defense plan to summon the mountain mother, religious teachers and other 5 witnesses, want to use "the background of religious growth destroyed" to fight for relief.
It is worth noting that Abe's widow will express her opinions in court in accordance with the "victim participation system." The mountain's mother had publicly confessed before the trial, saying that "if it weren't for me, he would not be here." However, her faith in the church became increasingly certain.
The church was dissolved and 6,000 people petitioned for a light sentence afterwards
After three years of delay, this case has already gone beyond the inherent scope of a simple criminal case, and the intricate hidden stories involved are far from as simple as the surface. The mountain's confession that "the church forced donations, causing the family to be destroyed", like a boulder entering the water, stirred up thousands of waves. The long-hidden problems of a church have been mercilessly pushed into the spotlight of public scrutiny. In March 2025, the Tokyo District Court ruled that the church raised donations through coercion, resulting in a loss of 20.4 billion yen. The court issued a dissolution order and asked for the liquidation of its assets.
The public opinion is further divided into two groups: someone strongly condemns violence, believing that “whatever the reason, murder is not forgiven”; and more than 6000 people have signed the petition, calling for “religious victims”, calling for light judgment.Outside the trial, college students from Tokyo say: “On the Internet there is condemnation, sympathy, and conspiracy theories, only to come to the court to find answers.”
In January next year, the maximum possible sentence is life imprisonment.
According to the schedule announced by the court, the case will go through 19 trials. The trial will end on December 18, and a formal verdict will be held on January 21, 2026. By then, the truth may be revealed. As for the verdict, officials from the former Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office had long predicted that the death penalty is rarely applied in Japan, and it can only be sentenced for killing multiple people. Judging from the circumstances of this case, there is a high probability that the mountain will be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Now, the cherry trees around the court have already changed three rounds of flowers and leaves, and the scene of the incident was less than two kilometers away from the court. After more than three years of waiting, the church was dissolved, and the society began to reflect on the chaos of religious fund-raising. The trial of this case is more like a final annotation to this past event that shocked Japan. No matter what the final verdict is, those people and things that have been changed by the case will never go back to the past.
How long do you think Tetsuya Yamada will eventually face? Such questions seem to be shrouded in fog, causing people to speculate on the duration of legal sanctions. Talk about your opinions in the comment area.