A court ordered the dissolution of the Unification Church in Japan, upholding a government request for a revocation spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Tokyo District Court’s revocation of the church’s legal status means it will lose its tax-exempt privilege and must liquidate its assets. However, the church can still appeal the decision to higher courts.
The order follows a request by Japan’s Education Ministry in 2023 to dissolve the influential South Korea-based sect, citing manipulative fundraising and recruitment tactics that sowed fear among followers and harmed their families.
The Japanese branch of the church had criticized the request as a serious threat to religious freedom and the human rights of its followers.
The investigation into the 2022 assassination of Abe revealed decades of cozy ties between the South Korea-based church and Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party. The church obtained legal status as a religious organization in Japan in 1968 amid an anti-communist movement supported by Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi.
The man accused of killing Abe resented the church and blamed it for his family’s financial troubles.
The church, which officially calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is the first religious group to face a revocation order under Japan’s civil code. Two earlier case involved criminal charges – the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, and Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud.
Japan has in place hurdles for restraining religious activities due to lessons from the prewar and wartime oppression of freedom of religion and thought.