TOKYO—At an election marketing campaign rally exterior Tokyo in June, the primary dignitary to be launched was from a sister group of the Unification Church that advocates strengthening Japan’s army and countering the Chinese Communist Party.
Soon after, the viewers heard from one other man who shared these views: former Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe.
Just over a month later, Mr. Abe was shot and killed by a person police say held a grudge towards an unspecified “religious group.”
Last month’s rally, in assist of a former aide to Mr. Abe who was searching for election to Japan’s Parliament, provided a glimpse at ties between politicians and non secular organizations in Japan, who usually align to pursue shared targets and mobilize blocs of voters.
For Mr. Abe, sharing the room with a consultant of a bunch based by the late Rev. Moon Sun-myung was a part of household custom. Mr. Abe’s grandfather, one other conservative former prime minister, helped Mr. Moon begin an anticommunist group in Japan within the Sixties.
Police say they’re investigating whether or not the taking pictures suspect,
Tetsuya Yamagami,
fired apply pictures subsequent to a constructing occupied by the Unification Church’s Japan arm. The head of the group stated Mr. Yamagami’s animosity might have stemmed from donations his mom made to the church.
Japan’s structure bars non secular organizations from wielding political authority. A spokeswoman for Mr. Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party stated she wasn’t conscious of any relationship between the celebration and the Unification Church or its associates.
The church, which is formally identified at this time because the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, says Mr. Abe was by no means a member or adviser to the group.
Susumu Sato,
a church spokesman, stated the church doesn’t assist particular politicians however members might assist LDP candidates.
Academics who examine the difficulty say the lobbying of high-level politicians with the prospect of bloc votes from church members in elections isn’t uncommon in Japan, particularly by teams that sprang up within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
“The Unification Church is highly aspirational when it comes to courting powerful people, and the LDP is the dominant party, so keeping close ties is beneficial to the church,” stated
Levi McLaughlin,
a North Carolina State University specialist on hyperlinks between non secular teams and politics in Japan. He stated many spiritual teams vie for the eye of highly effective politicians.
The nexus can carry danger for the politicians when the non secular teams with which they affiliate generate controversy—as occurred with the Rev. Moon’s church in Japan, which has been accused of pressuring members into making giant donations, one thing the church denies.
Mr. Abe’s grandfather,
Nobusuke Kishi,
who was prime minister from 1957 to 1960, supported the church’s efforts to develop in Japan, the church says.
Mr. Moon, who declared himself the second coming of Jesus Christ in 1992, constructed ties with others in Japan’s ruling LDP. In a 1974 speech,
Takeo Fukuda,
who was then finance minister and would later turn out to be prime minister, known as Mr. Moon “one of the great leaders of Asia.”
Church membership in Japan ultimately overtook that in South Korea. From the Seventies, some church members labored as unpaid marketing campaign workers for the LDP, in line with historian
Richard Samuels.
In 1996, Mr. Moon arrange one other group in Japan known as the Federation for World Peace, which shares workers with the anticommunist group he created. The FWP holds seminars, publishes {a magazine} and says it engages in political lobbying. The church describes the FWP as a sister group.
On its web site, the FWP states that its goals embrace stopping the hegemony of the Chinese Communist Party, constructing a detailed alliance between Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, and selling dialogue on a revision of Japan’s structure to insert a clause on household values.
At the June rally at which Mr. Abe spoke, the FWP’s secretary-general,
Shunsuke Uotani,
was the primary individual launched on stage as a supporter of the candidate, a former secretary to Mr. Abe who subsequently received election. The FWP stated Mr. Uotani, who says he’s a church member on his private weblog, wasn’t obtainable for remark.
The FWP says it has about 6,000 subscribers for its month-to-month journal, of which some 300 are politicians—principally LDP members. Mr. Abe has appeared on the journal cowl a number of occasions.
“We share our thoughts on issues such as revising the constitution” with the LDP, stated
Yoshio Watanabe,
an adviser to the federation.
Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida
has stated he needs to maneuver ahead with a revision of the structure to bolster assist for Japan’s army, a transfer promoted by Mr. Abe.
Other religiously affiliated teams in Japan are also energetic in politics.
The largest is a lay Buddhist group known as Soka Gakkai that created a political celebration known as Komeito. It is now the junior associate in Japan’s ruling coalition. Soka Gakkai says it has members in over eight million households in Japan.
Followers of Soka Gakkai kind one in all Japan’s largest voting blocs and are energetic throughout elections in encouraging voters to assist candidates from Komeito and the LDP. Komeito says it’s separate from Soka Gakkai.
Among different non secular teams, the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership, a bunch based on Japan’s Shinto religion, says 263 members of Parliament are energetic within the group, together with senior members of the LDP.
Mr. Abe gave a prerecorded video handle at a convention in South Korea held by one other Unification Church-linked group in September 2021, after he left the prime minister’s submit, in line with a recording of the occasion. Other audio system included former President
Donald Trump
and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
After the video handle, a bunch of legal professionals representing individuals who say they’ve been pressured to pay extreme donations to the Family Federation despatched a letter to Mr. Abe asking him to sever ties with the Unification Church and its affiliated teams.
The legal professionals say they received no response. Mr. Abe despatched a message to be learn out at an identical occasion this February.
Unification Church: What to Know
The Unification Church of the Rev. Moon Sun-myung made international headlines within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties however not lately—till a person with a reported grudge towards the church was arrested within the killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Here’s a information.
- How did the church turn out to be well-known?
The Unification Church, at this time formally often known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, was based in South Korea by Mr. Moon in 1954.
He stated his religion was rooted in Christian doctrine and preached that he represented the second coming of the Messiah. At the peak of the Watergate scandal, church members held “God Loves Richard Nixon” rallies in Washington, D.C., and Mr. Moon went to the White House to fulfill the embattled president.
Perhaps the most important publicity draw was Mr. Moon’s apply of presiding over mass weddings, which he believed would contribute to world peace. Mr. Moon himself would usually play matchmaker and pair {couples} of various racial backgrounds.
- Who runs the church at this time?
Mr. Moon died in 2012 on the age of 92. Mr. Moon’s widow, Hak Ja Han Moon, retained management of the primary group, and one in all his sons began an offshoot motion based mostly on his father’s teachings. Another son established the militant offshoot Sanctuary Church, which is understood for incorporating weapons in its ceremonies.
“They are all using the basic theology, but the lineage is being fought over,” stated Eileen Barker, a professor emeritus on the London School of Economics.
- How has the church modified lately?
Membership has seemingly fallen considerably, in line with students who comply with the church, however actual numbers are arduous to confirm.
Japan has lengthy been its greatest base alongside South Korea. The church says it has 600,000 followers and 286 church buildings in Japan. Katsuomi Abe, a lawyer who’s a part of a bunch serving to individuals who say they’re victims of the Unification Church, stated his group estimated the church had round 20,000 to 30,000 members in Japan and a roughly related quantity in the remainder of the world.
There has been a shift in how the church is perceived over the previous decade, in line with Prof. Barker. “They’ve gone from being a sect to a denomination,” she stated. Children of followers are much less more likely to be minimize off from the world, and they’re extra more likely to go to high school and maintain jobs exterior the group, she stated.
- What is the connection between the church and politicians?
Church leaders proceed to domesticate ties with highly effective politicians. Mr. Moon and his spouse based an affiliated group known as the Universal Peace Foundation that holds giant gatherings with high-profile company.
One passed off in February this 12 months on the Lotte World Hotel in Seoul. Mr. Abe despatched a message to the occasion, which additionally featured former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as audio system and former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a co-chair.
Michael Breen, writer of “The New Koreans: The Story of a Nation,” attended the gathering. “It was not like an academic or intellectual event. It was more sort of a cheerleading for peace,” stated Mr. Breen. “It’s a way of promoting themselves.”
—Suryatapa Bhattacharya
—
Miho Inada
and
Suryatapa Bhattacharya
contributed to this text.
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