Former Japan PM Shinzo Abe Shot Dead

[Broomstick]

Breaking news: Shinzo Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in the city of Nara. The shooter used a home made gun that, based on the smoke afterward, might have also used homemade gunpowder and ammunition.

CNN

Plenty of other articles all over the media.

[Zaune]

Welp.

I don't think anyone had that in their bingo card.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Apparently his killer was a former member of the military.

[LadyTevar]

As of the BBC news I read just now: (my thoughts in parenthesis)

The alleged gunman, named as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was a former member of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, Japan's equivalent of a navy, according to local news media. (I'm assuming this means local to Nara or that Prefecture.)

According to police, Yamagami had a grudge against a "specific organization", and believed Abe "belonged to that organization". Police did not name the group. (At this point, Yamagami's 'organization' could be as fictional as the Illuminati or as real as the Yakuza.)

[Zaune]

Given that Abe apparently held some... how to put this tactfully... polarising opinions about the war, I'd say it's about 50/50 odds that Yamagami hated him for implying that Imperial Japan wasn't all that bad versus hating him for not trying hard enough to have another go.

[loomer]

If I had to pick a mystery organization that might motivate a shooter and Abe belonged to, I'd pick Nippon Kaigi. About five years ago I made an informal study of the uyoko dantai (a very limited one since I don't read Japanese!) as research for a story and wound up looking quite a lot at the Nippon Kaigi and its links to paramilitary groups. Can't say for sure it was them that the shooter has a grudge against, but they're the ones that have me worried about how the political fallout will shake out.

[LadyTevar]

Well, looks like we were all off-course on what "the organization" was. In the BBC article where Japanese Police were criticizing Abe's security was this little paragraph:

Japanese media quote sources close to the investigation, who say Yamagami believed Abe to be linked to a religious group which, Yamagami alleged, had ruined his mother financially.

I'm wondering if the Japanese police/media will dig further into this angle.

[ray245]

Well, looks like we were all off-course on what "the organization" was. In the BBC article where Japanese Police were criticizing Abe's security was this little paragraph:

Japanese media quote sources close to the investigation, who say Yamagami believed Abe to be linked to a religious group which, Yamagami alleged, had ruined his mother financially.

I'm wondering if the Japanese police/media will dig further into this angle.

It's the unification church in Japan.

[LadyTevar]

It's the unification church in Japan.

The Moonies? Huh..

But it gets more twisted:

The assassination of Shinzo Abe has drawn attention to a fringe political party that had criticized him ahead of Sunday’s upper house election for alleged connections to religious groups.

Social-media users have highlighted comments by Akihiko Kurokawa, secretary-general of the NHK Party, alleging during a campaign debate last month that Abe was to blame for obscure funding of religious groups in Japan allegedly used as a front for “foreign spy activities.”

While there are no direct connections between the suspected shooter and the NHK Party, which was formed in 2013 with the aim of abolishing compulsory fees used to fund Japan’s national public broadcaster, the politician’s comments highlight a strain of politics that may shed light on the killer’s motives. Some of the allegations are reminiscent of the conspiracies spread by QAnon, which has gained traction in Japan.

So... political party claims Abe is at fault for the Moonies being in Japan.
Yamagami's mother is a Moonie, and allegedly went bankrupt donating money (another article the Moonies confirm she's a member but "doesn't know her financial status")
Yamagami can't get to the local head of the Moonies, but Abe is in reach.

[Zaune]

So, what exactly are the Moonies? I've honestly never heard of them.

And are they in any way related to that cult that a former President of South Korea was part of until some sort of massive scandal blew up?

[LadyTevar]

So, what exactly are the Moonies? I've honestly never heard of them.

And are they in any way related to that cult that a former President of South Korea was part of until some sort of massive scandal blew up?

Sorry... In America they're called the "Moonies" after the founder Sun Myung Moon.
It's official name is the Unification Church

[Zaune]

Well, that all sounds powerfully yet vaguely dubious.

[loomer]

I'll be honest. I did not have this one down to an objection to the Moonies. Not even on the card at all - I knew a couple of sects I'd have raised a question over, but, uh. Not the Moonies.

[LadyTevar]

Well, that all sounds powerfully yet vaguely dubious.

Read that Wiki. Look at all the things they have fingers in. They're a cult, but they got clout.

And yes I think this might be the one the South Korean politico was in trouble over as well