A Japanese court ordered the dissolution of the Unification Church in Japan, following a government request spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Tokyo District Court's decision will revoke the church's legal status, meaning it will no longer be exempt from taxes and must liquidate its assets, creating constraints on its normal religious activities.
The Unification Church expressed deep regret over the decision and denounced the verdict as "unfair." The organization stated that the court's judgment regarding its dissolution was "truly regrettable" and "unjust," criticizing it as a serious threat to religious freedom and the human rights of its followers.
"We sincerely ask that the general public does not discriminate against our congregation," the Unification Church said in a statement, according to The Independent.
The church can appeal the court's judgment regarding its dissolution. "We will consider our response after carefully examining the content of the judgment," the church's representative said.
The Unification Church came under scrutiny after the assassination of Shinzo Abe in 2022, which was linked to the church's influence and practices. The killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, admitted he targeted Abe due to grievances over the church's financial exploitation of his family, according to The Guardian.
Yamagami declared during interrogations that he targeted Abe after his unsuccessful attempts to attack the current leadership of the Unification Church. He blamed the organization for bankrupting his family due to his mother's alleged donation of about 100 million yen.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology requested the dissolution order in 2023, following an investigation into the church's ties to the Liberal Democratic Party. The ministry accused the Unification Church of causing fear and harm to followers and their families through manipulative fundraising and recruitment tactics.
"There were damages on an unprecedentedly large scale," said presiding judge Kenya Suzuki, according to The Independent.
The Unification Church, known as the "Moonies," has been part of controversy for decades, maintaining close ties with Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party, which were highlighted after the assassination of Shinzo Abe. Founded in Seoul in 1954 by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the church is officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, according to Anadolu Agency.
Moon was a self-proclaimed messiah preaching new interpretations of the Bible and was known for his anti-communist stance. The church obtained legal status as a religious organization in Japan in the 1960s during an anti-communist movement supported by former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, Shinzo Abe's grandfather.
In Japan, the church has faced lawsuits for offering "spiritual merchandise" that allegedly caused members to buy expensive art and jewelry or sell their real estate to raise donations for the church.
The ministry's investigation revealed that settlements involving the church exceeded 20 billion yen ($132 million) and involved more than 1,500 people.
Experts say Japanese followers of the Unification Church are asked to pay for sins committed by their ancestors during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. They also note that the majority of the church's worldwide funding comes from Japan.
The Unification Church has acknowledged excessive donations but claims the problem lessened since it stepped up compliance in 2009, arguing that the donations were part of legitimate religious activities. "Since the 2009 Compliance Declaration, we have guided to prevent excessive donations, and as a result, there have been almost no civil lawsuits," the church stated.
According to France Info, the investigation into Abe's assassination revealed the Unification Church's extensive ties to the governing Liberal Democratic Party, leading to public denunciations by victims, particularly children of members who claim they were robbed and extorted for donations.
At least 200 individuals have claimed they were forced to donate to the Unification Church, with demands for compensation totaling 5.7 billion yen ($38.5 million).
The Tokyo District Court's order makes the Unification Church the first religious group in Japan to face a revocation order under the civil code due to violations. Previous cases involved criminal charges, such as the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, responsible for the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway in March 1995, and the Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud.
The Unification Church is known for conducting mass wedding ceremonies, pairing off couples from different countries and renewing the vows of those already married. The church teaches that marriage is central to spiritual salvation and conducts mass weddings that include hundreds and thousands of couples.
Moon claimed to have had a vision of Jesus as a teenager, instructing him to complete his "unfinished work," and he claimed to be a new messiah commissioned in dreams by Jesus Christ to complete his work on Earth.
The Unification Church's core text, The Divine Principle, outlines its beliefs in God, human history, and salvation, and is considered a third text alongside the Old and New Testaments.
The assassination of Shinzo Abe shocked Japan, a country with some of the world's strictest gun control laws and low rates of political violence. Abe appeared at events organized by Unification Church affiliates. The ties between the church and the Liberal Democratic Party triggered public outrage.
"We believe our claims were accepted," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters, adding that the government will continue efforts to support victims of the church.
Lawyers representing those seeking damages from the Unification Church welcomed the court decision as a first step toward redress. "We must pursue our effort to achieve redress and to prevent future problems," head lawyer Susumu Murakoshi told reporters, demanding the church accept the dissolution order and offer an apology and compensation to all victims.
"Since the assassination of former Prime Minister Abe, there has been a lot of misinformation circulating in the media and social media about our organization," the Unification Church stated.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
