TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese government is convening a council on religious affairs to deliberate on whether to seek a court order to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church. This move comes in the wake of public outcry over the church’s fundraising methods and its close ties with the ruling party.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government is taking a firm stance, seemingly to regain public support, which has been eroded by the long-standing relationship between his Liberal Democratic Party and the South Korea-based church. The connection came to light during the investigation into the assassination of former leader Shinzo Abe in 2022.
The individual accused of assassinating Abe informed the police that his motivation was the former prime minister’s association with the church, which he claimed had driven his family into financial ruin due to excessive donations made by his mother.
In his opening statement to the expert panel, Education Minister Masahito Moriyama stated that his ministry, if endorsed by the panel, intends to seek court approval to revoke the church’s legal status.
Should the panel support this action, it is anticipated that the ministry will file for court approval as early as Friday, according to Japanese media reports. Revoking the legal status would result in the church losing its tax exemption status as a religious organization, although it would still be permitted to operate.
If approved, this would mark the first instance of a religious organization losing its legal status based on a civil code violation. Previous cases involving such actions were tied to criminal charges, including the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, responsible for a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and the Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud.
Moriyama revealed that his ministry reached its conclusions after conducting interviews with 170 individuals who claimed to be victims of the church’s alleged fundraising irregularities and other issues. The ministry conducted multiple hearings and reported that the church failed to provide satisfactory responses to numerous questions posed during these sessions.
The Unification Church, established in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, was granted legal status as a religious organization in Japan in 1968 during an anti-communist movement supported by former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, the grandfather of Shinzo Abe.
Since the 1970s, the church has faced allegations of unscrupulous business practices and recruitment tactics, including accusations of brainwashing members into making substantial donations to its leader, often resulting in financial ruin for these members and their families. The church has been the subject of numerous civil lawsuits and has acknowledged the issue of excessive donations, although it claims to have addressed this problem over the past decade and has recently pledged further reforms.
Experts point out that Japanese followers are asked to make amends for the sins committed by their ancestors during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and the majority of the church’s global funding is derived from Japan.
