Unification Church accuses Japan of ‘bias’, vows to fight on as disbandment looms

Japanese lawmakers on Friday submitted a request to the Tokyo District Court to officially disband the Unification Church. This move comes after about a year of investigation into the religious organization. The church has vowed to fight this request and defend its legal claims in court. If the court supports the government's request, the church will lose its legal status as a religious corporation and will be stripped of its tax benefits. However, the church will not be required to cease its religious operations in Japan. Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at the Tokyo campus of Temple University, stated that the majority of Japanese people believe this is the appropriate decision. This belief is based on the information about the church that has been circulating in the media over the past year. The church expressed extreme disappointment with the government's decision to submit the request. It accused the government of acting on biased information from a left-wing lawyer group established with the intention of destroying the organization. The church was referring to the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, which has been representing claimants against the church since 1987. However, this group has received little media coverage due to legal threats and pressure from the church. Public awareness of the lawyer group increased after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated last year. The alleged gunman claimed he shot Abe because Abe's grandfather had helped establish the church in Japan. He also stated that his family had been bankrupted after the church pressured his mother into giving away all their savings. Since 1987, the group has filed 34,818 lawsuits against the church on behalf of people who claim they were pressured into giving it money. The total damages amount to approximately 128 billion yen (US$856 million). The church, which was founded in South Korea in 1954, has faced complaints for decades about followers being pressured into making large financial donations or being convinced to purchase church-approved items at exorbitant prices. The lawyer group expressed appreciation for the government's dissolution request against the church, but stated that the move came too late. The group urged the church to sincerely address the past harms it caused, to apologize and compensate victims. It also urged the government to preserve the group's assets so they cannot be concealed or disposed of. The church has shown no signs of sincerely confronting the victims and has instead filed lawsuits against the lawyers' group, critics of the church, and even local governments. The government's Agency for Cultural Affairs began investigating the church in October last year and concluded that the church engaged in repeated malicious and illegal acts. Some people anticipate a long and drawn-out legal battle as the church has promised to fight on. Murakami from Temple University stated that most people expected this. She believes this case will go all the way to the Supreme Court and take many years. Perhaps the most surprising thing, she added, is the number of people who still follow the religion, despite all the revelations about its tactics and treatment of followers.