Kishida says he will ask his ministers to resign from the Unification Church

Aug. 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has assured this Saturday that with a view to the government crisis announced for next week, he will ask his ministers to resign from the controversial Unification Church, a religious institution recently placed in the spotlight for the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“I am going to ask all members of the government and not only those who are appointed, but also current and deputy ministers to clearly show if they are related to the group in question and review them properly,” Kishida explained.

Kishida has assured that he has “no relationship” with the Unification Church, but that some members of the government “should be careful with their relationships” with an organization considered “problematic by society” to clear up doubts, reports the news agency. Kiodo news.

Kishida, of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD), has confirmed for the first time and officially that he intends to make changes in the government next week and even the minority partner leader of the Government, the Komeito party, Natsuo Yamaguchi, has mentioned Wednesday as the date , according to the Japanese news agency Kiodo.

Kishida has appeared at a press conference in Hiroshima, where the 77th anniversary of the explosion of the nuclear bomb is remembered, and has stated that he wants “a new beginning” with an executive focused on issues such as coronavirus infections, inflation, Russia’s war against Ukraine or the tension in Taiwan.

This change of government happens after the partial elections of July 10 in which the PLD confirmed the majority necessary to promote changes in the Constitution and after the shooting death of Abe, shot by a man who reproached the Unification Church – -with which Abe was linked- because of the debts that his mother had.

“I have always thought of a fresh start with new members in the face of these challenges,” Kishida stated. “I have decided to go ahead with the plan now, at the exact moment I had in mind,” he said, according to Kiodo.

The Unification Church, questioned on previous occasions for its donation system, has assured that it carried out an internal reform in 2009, when its head admitted problems in complying with current legislation.

The fact is that several members of this church founded in South Korea in 1954 have been arrested in Japan for threats to obtain financing such as the use of “ancestral karma”. The mother of Abe’s killer, a former military man, allegedly owed money to this religious organization.