The Day Yamagami’s Life Sentence was Requested

On December 18, Japanese media focused heavily on the conclusion of the trial for Tetsuya Yamagami, the man accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Throughout the morning, outlets highlighted the reading of a statement from Abe’s widow, Akie, who expressed a lingering sense of loss. By early afternoon, the prosecution officially requested a life sentence, describing the act as a "historically unprecedented" crime. Yamagami notably declined to make a final statement before the case was closed for deliberation. In the political sphere, a major shift occurred as the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party for the People reached a formal agreement to raise the tax-exempt income threshold to 1.78 million yen. This concession by Prime Minister Takaichi, aimed at ensuring budget passage, dominated afternoon economic headlines alongside the Bank of Japan's decision to raise the policy interest rate to 0.75%, the highest level in three decades.