JAPAN Kishida orders official investigation into Unification Church

Pressured by public opinion, the Japanese prime minister decided to launch an investigation into the large donations to the religious group that has become the subject of intense public debate after Abe’s murder. He also told parliament that a phone line open for alleged victims ruined by debt received 1,700 calls. The investigation could lead to the revocation of the status of religious entity and the consequent tax benefits.

Tokyo () – This morning Japanese Prime Minister Kishida announced in parliament that the government has decided start an investigation into the Unification Church (now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification), the Christian religious group identified as a motive for the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 8.

The executive had shown extremely cautious for weeks in the face of public pressure, which pointed above all to the large donations received by the religious group, which were justified by the right to religious freedom. The latest polls, however, showed a further drop in the government’s approval rating, which now stands at around 35%, the lowest figure since Kishida took office. In the loss of consensus has weighed above all the discovery of the many links between the members of the PLD (the party of the prime minister, ndr) and the Unification Church. That is why this morning Kishida has asked the Minister of Education and Culture to start an investigation.

“The government has taken seriously the fact that there are a large number of victims, as well as consequences of poverty and broken families that have not been given adequate support,” Kishida said. Since the government opened a telephone line to help all those who consider themselves victims of the religious group, at least 1,700 calls have been received, and most of them refer to the problem of donations.

At a recent meeting, the official consumer protection agency stated that questionable practices are reason enough to recommend opening an investigation. In recent weeks, testimonies have even emerged from people who claim to have been induced by the religious group to buy “spiritual artifacts.” The agency speaks of entire families in the financial ruin.

A association of lawyers for the defense of victims speaks of a copious jurisprudence of sentences against the activities of the Church of the Unification. The religious group, however, is not willing to accept it and has refuted the accusations denouncing a campaign of hate and aggression against them. At the end of September, he also submitted a 22-page document to the UN Human Rights Committee in which he states that religious rights in Japan have been “grossly, systematically and flagrantly violated” since last July.

What could happen now with the Unification Church? At the end of the investigation, the ministry should open a legal case and, if the court ruled against it, the religious group would lose its status as a religious entity and the tax benefits that it entails. However, that would not imply an order of dissolution and the religious group could continue to exist.

Japanese courts have already issued dissolution orders twice in the past, but this is the first time the Japanese government has conducted an investigation. A sign that, despite Kishida’s change in strategy, a certain caution remains.