As more details of the shooting of Shinzo Abe come out two weeks after his death, some criminal psychology experts believe the suspect tried to highlight issues surrounding a religious group by targeting the former prime minister. The experts believe the assailant, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, switched the target of his…
A psychiatrist who has written a book on the topic said that the attack fits the criteria for an extended suicide, in which an individual dies by suicide while committing mass murder.
Dec 19, 2020
Japan’s weekly magazines occasionally take advantage of serendipitous timing to inflate the significance of certain stories. On Nov. 13, Princess Mako released a statement about her stalled betrothal to Kei Komuro, whom she met in university. Although the two announced plans to marry more than three years ago, they later put off the engagement until after all the rituals surrounding the succession of a new emperor were completed.
That cycle ended in early November when Mako’s father, Prince Akishino, was officially declared the Crown Prince in a formal ceremony. In her statement, Mako reiterated her intention to wed Komuro while acknowledging that some people were “negative” about the match. Coincidentally, her father held his annual birthday press conference and the matter of Mako’s marriage came up. His comment was provocatively equivocal in that he said his daughter’s desire to marry should be “respected” while also implying she needed to ma