Before Dissolving Religious Corporation

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology submitted to Tokyo Regional Court on Friday a request of issuing an order to dissolve a religious corporation, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. The ministry recognized damages on its believers and their families caused by donation to the organization. After the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year, FFWPU has been targeted as having inappropriate relationship with ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Even though Kishida administration hopes to bring this issue to an end, the process of the dissolution takes certain period of time.

Article 81 of Religious Corporations Act determines that the court may order the dissolution of religious corporation with following conditions: “in violation of laws and regulations, the religious corporation commits an act which is clearly found to harm public welfare substantially,” or “the religious corporations commits an act which deviates substantially from the purpose of a religious organization.”

 

The ministry found that FFWPU has, continuously for a long time, restricted its believers’ discretionary decision-making and let them donate or buy goods in the condition that normal decision was disturbed. There are two examples, Aum Shinrikyo and Myokakuji, for religious corporations to be dissolved with violation of the Criminal Law. This time, the ministry seeks dissolution of FFWPU with torts against the Civil Code.

 

Receiving the request from the ministry, the court is going to discuss whether it will issue an order of dissolution. If the order is issued, the corporation will go into the process of liquidation. While the organization can continue its activities as a voluntary organization, it can no longer receive any preferential treatment from the government.

 

As the assassin of Abe, Tetsuya Yamagami, reportedly explained his motivation that he thought Abe had a close relationship with FFWPU, the assassination brought negative impact on Kishida administration. It revealed a number of lawmakers with LDP who accepted political support from FFWPU. They included Chairman of LDP Policy Research Council, Koichi Hagiuda, or even Speaker of House of Representatives, Hiroyuki Hosoda.

 

Kishida hoped to remove the negative image of LDP which had been supported by a religious organization involved in inappropriate religious activities. But the process for requesting dissolution order took a long time. The government investigated FFWPU with unusual exercise of “right of questioning” to collect the evidences for seven times. During the period, Kishida administration faced criticisms on not explaining enough about LDP’s relationship with FFWPU. Even after the court issue the order, FFWPU can appeal to the higher court. The criticisms against LDP are likely to continue. Before dissolving a religious corporation, even how it may have malicious intention, the administration has to reveal the true facts related to the organization.

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