How Abe's murder and Moonies ties caused shockwaves

Unification church's links to members of the LDP have damaged trust and raised questions about donations

- Justin McCurry

In the days after Shinzo Abe was shot dead last summer while making an election campaign speech, commentators struggled to articulate a motive for a seemingly senseless attack on Japan's former and longest-serving prime minister.

Abe's violent death was an affront to democracy, said the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, adding that his mentor would be given a state funeral.

But Kishida was mistaken if he believed that Abe's controversial, and expensive, official farewell would achieve closure. Eight months on, the fallout from the killing is still being felt throughout Japan's politics and will continue into this year. It has sent Kishida's approval ratings plunging, triggered ministerial resignations, and ensnared hundreds of ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) politicians.

At the heart of the scandal lies the Unification church, whose members are known colloquially as Moonies. Founded in South Korea in 1956 by the self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon, the church has established a global presence with Japan proving fertile ground for converts and their donations.

When Tetsuya Yamagami allegedly fired the second, and decisive, shot from a homemade gun as Abe addressed voters outside a railway station on 8 July, he can have had little inkling of how deeply his alleged crime would reverberate through Nagatacho, Japan's political nerve centre.