Former Unification Church Received Order of Dissolution

Tokyo district Court issued on March 25th an order of dissolution as a religious corporation against Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), as known as former Unification Church (UC). The court found that the FFWPU caused a large amount of damage on its followers and their families through inappropriate activities urging donation. The federation announced its intention to appeal to an upper court.

The Unification Church was established in Republic of Korea in 1954 and started its mission in Japan late 1950s. While the organization supported conservative lawmakers in Japan, a lot of cases of seducing its followers to buy “spiritual goods” by the church were reported in 1980s and 1990s. It changed its name to FFWPU in 2015.

 

The name of FFWPU was publicly acknowledged when the assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tetsuya Yamagami, revealed his motivation for killing Abe. Yamagami told the police after he was arrested that he held a sense of vengeance against Abe, because he thought Abe had close connection with FFWPU which caused hardship on Yamagami family with a great amount of donation made by his mother.

 

The government of Japan began intensive investigation on FFWPU, exercising its “right for asking question” stipulated in Religious Corporation Act. It requested Tokyo District Court issuance of an order of dissolution to FFWPU in October 2023.

 

In its decision, the court found that the FFWPU urged its followers to donate as much as they would not able to maintain their daily life. The court estimated the amount of financial damage for the sufferers to be 20.4 billion yen of 1,506 people in about forty years until 2009.

 

The government requested dissolution of the FFWPU, arguing that the activity for donation was organized effort with malicious motivation and continued by now. The court approved all those accusations of the government. While former two cases of dissolution of religious corporation, to Aum Shinrikyo in 1995 and to Myokakuji Temple in 2002, were about violation of criminal law, the order for FFWPU is the first case on illegal activity against the Civil Code.

 

Denying inappropriate activity after 2009 when the federation established a declaration of compliance, the president of FFWPU, Tomihiro Tanaka, criticized the court of its approval on continuity of inappropriate donation. The federation announced that it would appeal to the higher court.

 

If the order of dissolution is fixed by the higher court, the FFWPU will lose its legal status of religious institute, while it can continue genuinely religious activities. It needs to pay for corporate tax on its income and property tax on its own lands and buildings. The victims of excessive donation expect the government to preserve the assets of FFWPU for compensation before they will be moved away. The lawyers for the victims hope the lawmakers to revise related laws to secure those assets.

 

Former UC had long history of connection with conservative lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party. Former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, grandfather of Shinzo Abe, was one of the initiators of political branch of UC, International Federation for Victory over Communism. The founder of UC, Moon Seong-myeong, recommended his followers to maintain connection with Seiwa-kai, one of the LDP factions once led by Shinzo Abe or his father Shintaro Abe. It is an unsolved question that how the foundation built relationship with political powers.

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