In an apparent move to calm the public outrage over his governing party’s cozy ties with the controversial group Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered an investigation on Monday into the Unification Church, in the wake of Shinzo Abe’s assassination which were revealed.
During an outdoor campaign speech in July former Prime Minister Abe was shot to death. He killed Abe because of his apparent link to a religious group he hated, The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, told police.
His mother’s large donations to the church bankrupted his family and ruined his life, a letter and social media postings attributed to Yamagami said.
In more than 1,700 cases that have been handled by police and legal experts a government hotline set up to receive complaints and inquiries related to the church has resulted, Kishida said.
Kishida said “The government has not been able to provide adequate support and I take it seriously, but many victims face financial difficulty and their families were destroyed”. To support the alleged victims he also pledged to do more, including a possible revision to the consumer contract law to prevent future problems.
By Sun Myung Moon the Unification Church, founded in South Korea in 1954, by Abe’s grandfather and former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi obtained a religious organization status in Japan in 1968 amid anti-communist movement supported.
Since the 1980s, the church has faced accusations of devious business and recruitment tactics, including brainwashing members into turning over huge portions of their salaries to Moon.
There have been cases of “excessive” donations the group acknowledged. It says issues have been mitigated, and recently pledged further reforms since it adopted stricter compliance in 2009.
Many financial problems and lawsuits stemming from the church’s methods earlier Monday a government panel submitted a report that found. Though officials are seen as reluctant to go that far, the report called for an investigation while considering revoking the group’s legal status.
He has instructed the Education and Culture Minister Keiko Nagaoka, primarily in charge of overseeing religious groups, to prepare for an investigation into the church under the Religious Corporations Act, Kishida told a parliamentary committee meeting Monday.
Between the South Korea-based church and the members of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, including Abe, over their shared interests in conservative causes the police investigation of Abe’s killing led to revelations of widespread ties.
Some of whom have come out and said they were forced to join the church and were left in poverty or neglected because of their parents’ devotion, the case also shed a light on the suffering of adherents’ children.
Because of problems with followers and their families over their financial and mental hardships many critics consider the church to be a cult.
An LDP survey in September found nearly half of its lawmakers had ties to the church, including Cabinet ministers. Kishida has pledged to cut all such ties, but many Japanese want a further explanation of how the church may have influenced party policies.
Over his handling of the church controversy and for holding a state funeral for Abe Kishida has come under fire and his government’s support ratings have nosedived, one of Japan’s most divisive leaders who is now seen as a key link to the governing party’s church ties.
She will set up a panel of legal and religious experts next week to discuss a rare investigation into a religious group, Nagaoka, the culture minister, said.
Members of the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, who watch the church, submitted a request last week to the culture and justice ministries and the top prosecutor to issue a disbandment order to the church.
Including anti-cult activists and so-called second-generation followers, a group of about 40 individuals and organizations, started a petition drive seeking to revoke the church’s legal status as a religious organization. Within hours of the launch the petition has collected nearly 25,000 signatures.
More than 100 million yen ($700,000) the church has acknowledged that Yamagami’s mother donated to the group that includes life insurance and real estate. It said it later returned about half at the request of the suspect’s uncle.
Experts say during their colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula Japanese followers were asked to pay for their ancestral sins committed, and that 70% of the church’s funding comes from Japan.
Source:- https://mymktblogs.com/for-unification-church-problems-japan-pm-orders-probe/
0
