Japan orders ‘immediate’ probe of Unification Church after former PM’s assassination revealed government ties

Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida has ordered an investigation into the Unification Church in a move which could strip the group of its “religious corporation” status.

Mr Kishida said he has asked the education ministry to investigate the Unification Church’s problematic “spiritual sales” tactics.

This is the first time the government will exercise its authority to investigate a religious group based on the country’s Religious Corporation Law, reported The Japan Times.

“We will deal with the religious group deemed to be problematic in a strict manner, including under the Religious Corporation Law,” the prime minister said.

“The government has taken seriously the fact that there are a large number of victims as well as poverty and broken families, and they haven’t been provided with adequate relief,” he added.

“I must frankly apologise that we have damaged the public’s trust in politics.”

Japan’s education minister, Keiko Nagaoka, said the probe will begin “immediately”.

The church has been under the spotlight since the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe on 8 July this year.

Police said the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, attacked Abe as he believed the former leader was a supporter of the Unification Church, which he said financially ruined his family as his mother had made huge donations to the church.

The church is said to have deep ties with Japan’s ruling party lawmakers and even with Abe himself, who had praised its emphasis on family values.

The church acknowledged Mr Yamagami’s mother donated more than 100 million yen ($700,000), including life insurance and real estate, to the group. It said it later returned about half at the request of the suspect’s uncle.

Mr Kishida’s announcement of an investigation into the church, which was earlier known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, comes at a time when public support for his government plummeted to its lowest since he took office a year ago.

There is anger among people that members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which Abe earlier was the leader of, did not fully disclose their ties to the church. It was earlier reported that an internal survey by the LDP revealed about half the party’s lawmakers had ties to the church.

According to one Kyodo News survey which was conducted earlier this month, it was revealed the approval rating for Mr Kishida’s cabinet has fallen to 35 per cent – the worst since it took office in October last year.

Meanwhile, under the Religious Corporation law, if the church is found to be violating the law or “conducting activities significantly damaging public welfare”, the government can strip the group of its “religious corporation” status. Local media reported that a court will then decide whether that will go ahead.

Even if the Unification Church is stripped of its status, it is still allowed to conduct religious activities.

Before Mr Kishida’s announcement on Monday, a report by the Consumer Affairs Agency expert panel had revealed that the government needed to investigate the Unification Church.

“Based on the problems that have come to light, the ministry in charge needs to exercise the right to question and get a report (on the Unification Church) with an eye to making a request to remove its religious corporation status,” the report said.