Prosecutors have decided to indict the man accused of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following a psychiatric evaluation, sources close to the matter said Saturday.
The Nara District Prosecutor's Office earlier extended the detention of Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, to carefully examine whether he was mentally fit to withstand trial.
His statements during the examination, including those on how he made a firearm to shoot Abe, led the prosecutors to believe he was competent enough to be tried, the sources said.
The period of his detention will expire on Jan. 10. Yamagami was arrested over the murder of Abe on July 8 during a campaign speech in the city of Nara.
Yamagami has told investigators that he held a grudge against the Unification Church, a religious group known for its mass weddings and aggressive donation solicitations, and targeted Abe over his links to the group, investigative sources have said.
According to Yamagami's uncle and a senior church official, his mother made donations totaling about ¥100 million to the group — formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. The suspect had said the donations left his family in financial ruin.
His citing of the church's ties with politics as a motive exposed links between many Japanese lawmakers and the church, prompting political parties, including the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, to probe their connections with the religious group, which was founded in South Korea in the 1950s.
The government is also probing the church's activities to assess whether it has been systematically involved in soliciting massive, financially ruinous donations from its members and their families.