Photo of Abe with Unification Church Leaders

Asahi Shimbun published a photo which indicated a meeting between former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the head of Family Federation for the World Peace and Unification (FFWPU: former Unification Church) in 2013. FFWPU is known as excessive request of donation to its followers, which might cause breakup of families. The assassin of Abe indicated vengeance against FFWPU as his motivation of shooting. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reiterated his argument in the Diet that the he would not be able to reconfirm relationship between them, because Abe had died. 

According Asahi’s report, the photo was taken in the president’s guest room in the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party in Tokyo in July 2013, three days before election of the House of Councillors. On the photo, Abe and the head of FFWPU, Eiji Tokuno, stand side by side, surrounded by Abe’s allies, his brother Nobuo Kishi and colleague Koichi Hagiuda, and leaders of organizations related to FFWPU, including International Federation for Victory over Communism.

 

Anonymous people told Asahi that the meeting was to reconfirm FFWPU’s support for a candidate of the LDP in the Upper House election. A member of the Upper House, Tsuneo Kitamura, former political director of Sankei Shimbun, who was listed on LDP’s roster for proportional election and won the seat as a freshman with organized support from FFWPU.

 

The relationship between LDP and FFWPU made a major scandal before the party was caught in the slush fund scandal by factions. The assassin of Abe indicated that his family was collapsed, because his mother donated excessive amount of money to FFWPU. The LDP as an organization denied its relationship with FFWPU, and asked each lawmaker to confirm whether they had personal relationship with FFWPU.

 

In September 2022, the LDP published a result of internal survey on the relationship with FFWPU, and the party found 180 out of 379 lawmakers had relationship with FFWPU. Their activities included support for election or attendance to FFWPU’s meeting. Hagiuda, the chairman of LDP Policy Research Council at the time, and Kishi admitted their relationship with FFWPU. Even former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hiroyuki Hosoda, was doubted as having close relationship with FFWPU, as video of Hosoda making speech in a meeting was broadcast in TV.

 

Asahi reported last year a meeting between Kishida and the leaders of organizations related to FFWPU in 2019. “The relationship with Unification Church is as I have explained in the Diet again and again,” said Kishida to the reporters. Just as he failed in explaining how the kickback system had been created in Abe faction, Kishida showed no intention to investigate how the each of lawmakers had relationship with the religious organization, of which the government of Japan submitted a request for a court order of dissolution.

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