TOKYO -- One year after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot, questions still surround links between his political party and the Unification Church -- ties that the man charged with his murder claimed as the motive for his actions.
Since the July 8 killing at an election rally in Nara in western Japan, revelations about close connections between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the church, formally known as The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, have shaken public trust in the government. Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, who is awaiting trial for the assassination, said he targeted Abe due to a grudge he held against the church after his mother bankrupted her family by donating large sums to the group.
