A Tokyo court has ordered the dissolution of the controversial Unification Church in Japan, which came under scrutiny for its fundraising tactics and close ties with government politicians after the 2022 assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
The court’s decision revokes the legal status of the South Korea-based church, stripping it of its tax-exempt status and requiring the liquidation of its assets, but it doesn’t ban it from operating in Japan.
The church has indicated it will appeal the ruling, saying in a statement that it was “based on an incorrect interpretation of the law and is totally unacceptable to this organisation”.
Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July 2022.Credit:
The verdict fulfilled a request by Japan’s Education Ministry, which urged the court in 2023 to dissolve the sect after an investigation concluded the group had systematically manipulated its followers into donating money, sowed fear and harmed their families for decades.
“Our claims were accepted,” Education Minister Toshiko Abe said in a statement.
The investigation by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was triggered after Abe’s alleged killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, told police he was motivated by the former prime minister’s links to the church, which he blamed for bankrupting his family. Yamagami’s mother donated more than 100 million yen ($1,055,400), including life insurance and real estate, to the group.
An LDP survey found almost half of the party’s lawmakers had connections with the church.
These revelations, amid a broader political fundraising scandal, severely damaged the party’s support with voters and contributed to then-leader Fumio Kishida’s resignation last year, despite his efforts to push through reforms. His replacement as prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, went on to lose majority control of the parliament in an election in October.
Abe was not a member of the church, but his family’s political ties to the organisation could be traced to his grandfather, former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, whose support for the group was grounded in their shared anti-communist sentiments. Abe, along with his brother Nobuo Kishi and other senior members of the LDP, had given speeches to the church, legitimising its practices and endearing its followers to the government.
The church was founded in Seoul in 1954, a year after the end of the Korean War, by the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who preached new interpretations of the Bible and conservative, family-oriented value systems.
Its followers were known as “Moonies”, and the church was accused of brainwashing and manipulating its members to make them buy expensive goods and spiritual merchandise, and donate beyond their financial ability.
It developed relations with conservative world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, as well as his predecessors Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
The church has acknowledged excessive donations, but it says the problem has lessened since the group stepped up compliance in 2009.
with agencies
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