“A pebble” was the answer that Tetsuya Yamagami gave in his high school yearbook for what he dreamed of becoming in the future.

Asked why, Yamagami, now 45, explained: “That was because I knew that nothing good would ever happen in my life.” And he noted of his present self, “I believe I shouldn’t have continued living.”

The Nara District Court on Jan. 21 found Yamagami guilty of murder and other offenses for the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and sentenced him to life in prison.

Weighing crime and punishment, is this verdict too harsh, or what?........

© The Asahi Shimbun