[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Japanese prosecutors have announced that they will extend the psychiatric evaluation period of Tetsuya Yamagami, who assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, by about two months.
According to Kyodo News on the 17th, the Nara District Public Prosecutors Office applied to the court to extend Yamagami's psychiatric evaluation period, extending the end date from the 29th of this month to February 6th of next year. The Nara prosecutors stated that the extension was "necessary for the investigation," but did not disclose a clear reason.
Kyodo News pointed out that if Yamagami is indicted for murder, the focus in court is likely to be on whether he is recognized as criminally responsible, so the Nara prosecutors may have extended the psychiatric evaluation period to thoroughly understand his mental state. Criminal responsibility refers to the intellectual state in which a person can control themselves and be held accountable for criminal acts.
On July 8th, Yamagami shot and killed former Prime Minister Abe during an election campaign in Nara City. He cited as his motive that "my mother donated a large sum of money to the Unification Church, which ruined our family," and raised suspicions of collusion between former Prime Minister Abe and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church, hereafter Family Federation).
Since then, controversies surrounding the Family Federation and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have spread, and political disputes continue to this day. In a public opinion poll conducted by Jiji Press from the 11th to the 14th, 69.4% of respondents answered "the Japanese government should request the dissolution order of the Family Federation" to the question, "Should the Japanese government request the dissolution order of the Family Federation?"
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