{"id":266484,"date":"2025-03-25T15:51:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T15:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/japanese-court-disbands-unification-church-in-wake-of-abe-killing\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T15:51:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T15:51:04","slug":"japanese-court-disbands-unification-church-in-wake-of-abe-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/japanese-court-disbands-unification-church-in-wake-of-abe-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Court Disbands Unification Church in Wake of Abe Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/25\/world\/25int-japan-church\/25int-japan-church-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Japanese Court Disbands Unification Church in Wake of Abe Killing\" title=\"Japanese Court Disbands Unification Church in Wake of Abe Killing\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A court in Tokyo on Tuesday ordered the Japanese branch of the Unification Church to disband, three years after it came under scrutiny following the assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/07\/08\/world\/asia\/shinzo-abe-assassin-handmade-gun.html\" title=\"\">shooting of Mr. Abe<\/a> by a man with a grudge against the church led to revelations that the fringe religious group had pushed members into financial hardship to fund its donations to conservative politicians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a ruling that was widely expected but unusual in its severity, the court agreed to a government request to strip the church of its legal status to exist, saying that it had violated laws governing religious activities. The education ministry, which has oversight of religious groups, requested <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/12\/world\/asia\/unification-church-japan-abe.html\" title=\"\">in October 2023<\/a> that the church be disbanded after determining that it forced members to make donations and buy religious goods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ministry collected the testimonies of some 1,550 former members who claimed to have suffered financial damages of 20.4 billion yen, or $140 million. The church, known for its mass weddings, was founded in South Korea by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who died in 2012. It has branches in scores of countries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Attention has fallen on the church since the killing of Mr. Abe, who was gunned down on a street during a campaign speech. The suspect claimed that the church had bankrupted his family by forcing his mother, a member, to turn over her life savings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested at the scene, has admitted to the July 2022 shooting, though he is still awaiting trial. After the assassination, it emerged that Mr. Yamagami blamed Mr. Abe, whom he perceived as supporting the church.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The revelation set off a scramble by conservative lawmakers seeking to distance themselves from the church, which has been a major political donor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an internal audit, the governing Liberal Democratic Party found that some 180 of its elected lawmakers, or almost half of its entire membership in Japan\u2019s Parliament, either accepted donations or attended events held by the church and related organizations. However, the party\u2019s leadership has maintained that it had no organizational ties to the religious group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With Tuesday\u2019s court decision, the government will now shift its efforts to \u201cgiving the maximum amount of support to the victims,\u201d Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief government spokesman, told reporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The church, which claimed some 600,000 members in Japan, is reported by local news media to have assets worth an estimated 110 billion yen. Some of that will likely be claimed by a court-appointed liquidator for use in compensating former members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a statement, the church, which changed its name in 2015 to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, said it planned to appeal the decision. Since the murder of Mr. Abe, it said members\u2019 human rights have been violated and \u201cinaccurate views of us have spread\u201d in the media and on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In recent history, Japan has disbanded two other religious groups. One of them was Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult behind the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/07\/05\/world\/asia\/japan-cult-execute-sarin.html\" title=\"\">deadly sarin gas attack<\/a> on Tokyo subways in 1995. It was ordered to be broken up a year later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Unification Church has faced anger from former members in the past. In 2009, it agreed to improve its compliance with laws governing the conduct of religious groups. On Tuesday, the court cited the church\u2019s failure to mend its ways as a reason for ordering its dissolution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt is difficult to expect improvements after the group failed to improve following the guidance on compliance, and a situation has been allowed to continue that cannot be overlooked,\u201d the head judge, Kenya Suzuki, was quoted as saying by local media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An expert on new religions said the full extent of the hardships and heartbreak caused by the church remains unknown. He said many former members cannot come forward for fear of retribution against themselves or their families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe testimonies collected by the education ministry are just the tip of the iceberg,\u201d said Hotaka Tsukada, a professor at Bunkyo University who specializes in religion in society. \u201cMany are still unable to speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/25\/world\/asia\/japanese-court-church-disband.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A court in Tokyo on Tuesday ordered the Japanese branch of the Unification Church to disband, three years after it came under scrutiny following the assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe. The shooting of Mr. Abe by a man with a grudge against the church led to revelations that the fringe religious group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/25\/world\/25int-japan-church\/25int-japan-church-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[188292,6149,1625,155970,68387,92,121,4373,137131,163680,188293,38254,14315],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266486,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266484\/revisions\/266486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}