TOKYO — A Japanese court on Tuesday ordered the dissolution of the Unification Church following a government request prompted by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The church stated it is considering immediately appealing the Tokyo District Court’s decision to revoke its legal status. This revocation would eliminate its tax exemption and necessitate the liquidation of its assets.
The order was issued after the Education Ministry of Japan requested the dissolution of the South Korea-based religious group in 2023. The ministry cited manipulative fundraising and recruitment practices that instilled fear in followers and negatively impacted their families.
The Japanese branch of the Unification Church has previously stated that the request poses a significant threat to religious freedom and the human rights of its members.
The church described the court’s decision as regrettable and unjust, asserting in a statement that it was based on “a wrong legal interpretation and absolutely unacceptable.”
The investigation into Abe’s assassination revealed long-standing close ties between the Unification Church, headquartered in South Korea, and Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The church initially gained legal recognition as a religious organization in Japan during the 1960s as part of an anti-communist movement supported by Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi.
The man who confessed to Abe’s murder harbored resentment towards the church, blaming it for his family’s financial woes.
The church, officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is the first religious organization to face a revocation order under Japan’s civil code. Previous cases involved criminal charges, including the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult responsible for the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack and the Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud.
To support its request for the church’s dissolution, the Education Ministry presented 5,000 documents and pieces of evidence to the court, based on interviews with over 170 individuals.
According to officials and experts, the church employed manipulative tactics to control its followers’ decision-making, pushing them to purchase expensive items and donate beyond their means, thus causing fear and harm to them and their families, which constitutes a serious violation of the law governing religious organizations.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs reported that settlements, both in and out of court, totaled over 20 billion yen ($132 million) and involved more than 1,500 people.
The church was established in Seoul in 1954, following the Korean War, by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who proclaimed himself a messiah and advocated novel interpretations of the Bible, along with conservative, family-centered values.
It cultivated relationships with conservative global leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as his predecessors Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the church faced accusations of using deceptive recruitment methods and brainwashing followers to donate significant portions of their income to Moon. In Japan, the group has been subject to lawsuits for offering “spiritual merchandise,” which allegedly led members to purchase costly art and jewelry or sell their properties to raise funds for the church.
The church has acknowledged instances of excessive donations but maintains that the issue has decreased since the implementation of enhanced compliance measures in 2009.
Experts indicate that Japanese members are often pressured to atone for sins supposedly committed by their ancestors during Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and that the majority of the church’s global funding originates from Japan.
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