What is the ‘Moon’ sect and why is it linked to the murder of Shinzo Abe?

First modification: 07/11/2022 – 12:46

With our correspondent in Tokyo, Gonzalo Robledo.

Tetsuya Yamagami carried out his attack as revenge for the support of the influential politician to the so-called Unification Church and to which his mother donated money.

In a press conference on Monday, July 11, the Unification Church confirmed that Yamagami’s mother attended the congregation monthly but declined to refer to the alleged donations.

The religious group was founded in Korea in the middle of the last century by Sun Myung Moon, who passed away in 2012. At that time, the sect claimed three million followers, who proclaimed him as the True Father.

For decades the sect was famous for organizing mass marriages, with thousands of couples uniting in gigantic sports stadiums.

a video message

Also known as the Moon Sect, the organization has ties to conservative world leaders and Abe reportedly sent a video message of support to one of their meetings.

“Abe showed his support for our global peace movement. However, he never registered as a member of our church, nor as an adviser. We are a bit puzzled because there is a long way between holding a grudge against us and killing Mr. Abe. No We can understand the motives of the suspect, so we will fully cooperate with the police to unravel him,” Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese branch of the Moon Church, told a news conference.

Japanese authorities had announced shortly after Yamagami’s arrest that the suspect had misgivings about a religious group linked to Abe, but withheld the name apparently so as not to affect the weekend’s upper house elections.

Japan is a Buddhist, Shinto country, but it is home to thousands of sects and new religions that include imported creeds.