Japanese Prime Minister Orders Unification Church Investigation

Oct. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called on Monday for his administration to launch an investigation into the Unification Church, based on the Religious Corporation Law.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has indicated that there is no precedent for the exercise of investigative power within the framework of the aforementioned law. “I want to start immediately,” said portfolio leader Keiko Nagaoka, according to the Japanese agency Kyodo.

The Religious Corporations Act has provisions for dissolution orders, according to the results of the investigation. In this way, the church could lose its status as a religious corporation, depriving it of tax benefits, although it could continue to operate as a religious entity.

According to the aforementioned agency, the objective of this initiative could be to show a common position against the Unification Church, since it is one of the causes of the drop in the cabinet’s approval rating.

The Unification Church is a religious group that has been in the spotlight in recent months for its ties to the ruling party and for the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in early July.

Abe – who died at the age of 67 after being a minister from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020 – was shot by a man who made a homemade weapon, the assailant later claimed that he had attacked the former prime minister for his links with the Unification Church.