Police did not specify which organization it was, but Japanese social media pointed to the Unification Church. The former prime minister and other political figures had links to the sect, but we will have to wait for the results of the investigations to have a clearer picture. How the IOU spread from Korea to Japan.
Tokyo ( / Agencies) – The man who yesterday assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the police that his purpose was to attack a religious group that had received donations from his mother, who was then forced to sell the house due to to debts. Tetsuya Yamagami decided to kill Abe because the former prime minister – he explained – had sponsored the religious sect.
Japanese authorities did not specify which group Yamagami was referring to, but rumors began to circulate online that it could be the Unification Church (U.C.), whose headquarters are in Nara, opposite the electoral committee where Abe was killed.
The panorama for the moment remains confusing and we will have to wait for the results of the investigations and the trial to confirm or not the religious motive, and reveal the extent to which the links between the former prime minister and one of the most powerful and controversial Asian Churches.
Founded in South Korea by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife, the Unification Church spread to Japan in the 1980s through a “new religion” called Tenchi Seikyo, founded by Kawase Kayo, a shaman who combined some teachings of Buddhism with the beliefs spread by Reverend Moon, especially the idea that a person’s misfortunes stem from the sins of their ancestors. In fact, it is believed in Japan that Abe’s maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960, had already collaborated with the IoU to create an anti-communist political organization.
Over the years, the WCG has managed to forge relationships with leading figures on the right or far right: Moon had supported US President Richard Nixon, and his Church later supported Donald Trump, who along with Abe recently attended various events and conferences of the religious sect. So far it is not clear how close the link is – even financially – between the Church and the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party to which Abe belonged.
Sun Myung Moon was expelled from the Presbyterian Church after escaping from North Korea and founded his church in Seoul in 1954, preaching he was “the Lord of the second coming”, the Savior of all religions, the new Messiah. His followers (called moon or moonies in the United States) must donate to the Church to build a new world of peace, made up of their own hospitals, schools, industries and entertainment centers.However, the commercial activities of the Unification Church have sparked scandals in Japan repeatedly: parents and friends of members of the sect have accused Moon of manipulating the consciences of young people to appropriate their wealth.In 1982, the reverend moved to the United States, where he was sentenced to 11 months in prison. jail for tax evasion His empire, built between the US and Korea, was later divided among his 14 children.
Although the WCG has stated on numerous occasions that it wants to collaborate with the Catholic and Protestant Churches, its proselytizing activities have often been directed at the Christian faithful, both in Japan and South Korea, but also in other parts of the world. In 2001, Reverend Moon had arranged for African Catholic Bishop Emmanuel Milingo to enter his Church and marry Maria Sung. According to some commentators, Milingo’s “conversion” was part of a larger project aimed at weakening the Catholic Church in Africa by offering a religion similar to Christianity, but in which priests can marry and polygamy and marriages are permitted. magical arts.
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