Minister Received Recommendation from Religious Organization

“The Right person on the right position” is the principle for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in picking Ministers of his Cabinet. He must have chosen Masahito Moriyama for Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on that principle. Asahi Shimbun reported that Moriyama received recommendation from a religious organization in the last election of House of Representatives, to which the ministry issued a request of a court order for disbanding. Is it fair to say that he is a right person for the minister? 

The report revealed that Moriyama attended a party of Federation for World Peace (FWP), a friend organization of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), held in Kobe city in October 2021. It was just before the official announcement of the general election of House of Representatives voted weeks later in the same month. Moriyama ran for the election in the district of Hyogo 1st, which included Kobe city.

 

In the party, Moriyama signed a policy accord with FWP, which worked as an endorsement for Moriyama in the election. The accord included constitutional amendment for enhancing security capability of Japan, creating Family Education Supporting Law and Juvenile Training Basic Law, carefully dealing with LGBT issues and same sex marriage, and promotion of building Japan-Korea tunnel.

 

The signing on the agreement was a condition for FWP to support Moriyama’s election campaign. After the agreement was exchanged between Moriyama and FWP, ten to twenty members of FWP made a number of calls from Moriyama’s campaign office to the voters in the district asking voting, according to the report based on an interview to an anonymous person who knew about the campaign.

 

After the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022, it was found that the man who shot Abe had a resentment against FFWPU on its coercive request of donation to his family, which caused extreme poverty of him. Through the research on former believers of FFWPU, there appeared a lot of examples which indicated excessive requests of donation. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) demanded Tokyo District Court for disbanding FFWPU last October.

 

In the discussion of Committee on Budget in the House of Representatives, Moriyama argued that he could not remember whether he received recommendation from FWP. However, he admitted that he might have received it, because the news report showed a picture in which Moriyama had a document of recommendation. “I think that I might have received it, as seeing the picture,” said Moriyama.

 

MEXT is the ministry which oversees religious organization. Minister of MEXT is supposed to be neutral on the decisions over regulating activities of religious organization. Receiving recommendation from FWP in the election and exchanging a policy accord with them generate skepticisms against the minister. Not only the opposition parties but also the leading parties began to raise voices to replace Moriyama.

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