Settlement of Former Unification Church Begins

Tokyo High Court issued an order of dissolution to Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (former Unification Church, FFWPU) on March 4th. As Religious Corporation Act gives high court a power to execute its dissolution order, an agent of the court started process of settlement on the religious organization. The court found that activity of FFWPU to collect donation from its believers had been constructing tort stipulated in the Civil Code of Japan. 

The court realized that the leaders of FFWPU approved illegal seduction of its members to followers for collecting donation to the organization. It recognized 506 sufferers who were surely damaged by those activities, based on court decisions or reconciliations, for 40 years since 1973. The damage is estimated to amounted to 7.4 billion yen. Although FFWPU argued that it had taken preventive measures in 2009, the court found that the damages continued afterward.

 

Article 81 of Religious Corporation Act provides that a court can order dissolution of a religious organization when it commits an activity that extremely damages public welfare or deviates from purpose of a religious organization. Tokyo High Court found that the provision could be applied to FFWPU. It dismissed argument of FFWPU to demand freedom of religion that is guaranteed by Constitution of Japan.

 

Chief Cabinet Secretary, Minoru Kihara, welcomed the decision of Tokyo High Court. “I recognize that our argument was accepted,” he said in his press conference. He instructed related ministries to take necessary measures to support sufferers.

 

FFWPU issued a statement on the court decision. “This marks an unprecedented milestone in Japan’s postwar constitutional era: For the first time, a major religious organization has been effectively erased as a legal entity, without any criminal conviction against the organization itself,” says the statement. It is going to appeal to the Supreme Court.

 

Tokyo High Court named Hiashi Ito as the agent for settlement of FFWPU. Ito and his staffs started search in 300 FFWPU churches all over Japan and control its assets to compensate for damages on the sufferers. It is supposed that the organization possesses 100 billion yen of assets and has 80 thousand of followers. Since dissolution order does not prohibit religious activities of the followers, it is important how the government protect freedom of religion for the followers.

 

Excessive donation of FFWPU’s followers were revealed by assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, in which the assassin had been suffered from donation of his mother to the FFWPU. The Liberal Democratic Party found in 2022 that certain number of lawmakers who had been connected with FFWPU. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has also been supported by FFWPU and she had interviews of a newspaper closely related to the organization.

 

To determine the size of damage, it is necessary to collect information from the followers who are still believe in the religion. Salvaging suffered families from hardship or poverty should be another requirement. It is likely that the effort of settlement may take years.

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