Japanese court orders dissolution of Unification Church sect

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday revoked the tax-exempt status of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported. The decision, which also orders the religious group to liquidate its assets, fulfills an October request from the country’s Ministry of Education following investigations into the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Unification Church may appeal to higher courts. In a statement, the group called the court’s decision a violation of Article 20 of the Japanese Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion.

What is the Unification Church? Sun Myung Moon, a self-­proclaimed messiah, founded the Unification Church in Seoul in 1954. Also known as the Moonies, the group’s official name is the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Moon claimed Jesus had sent him to defeat communism and strengthen families through marriage blessing ceremonies supposed to redeem believers from Satanic ­lineage. Less than 1% of Japan’s population has officially joined the Unification Church. But the group has gained an outsized political influence by financing and promoting candidates of Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party.

How is the group related to Abe’s death? Tetsuya Yamagami, who was seized at the scene of the assassination with a homemade firearm, professed his motive for the attack was rage against the Unification Church. He claimed his mother’s huge donations to the organization bankrupted his family preventing him from attending college and driving his brother to suicide. Abe was a prominent and influential member of the group. Yamagami has been formally charged with killing Abe but has not yet been convicted in court.

Since Abe’s death, the organization has faced a backlash in Japan for its political ties and fundraising techniques. About 13,000 people signed a petition asking for leniency for Yamagami. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida fired or transferred Cabinet members with Unification Church ties. The organization paid out $67 million in 2023 to satisfy claims of coerced donations. 

Have Japanese courts ordered the dissolution of religious groups in the past? The Unification Church is the third sect Japanese courts have disbanded for legal violations, NHK reported. The other two are the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which carried out a deadly sarin gas attack in 1995, and the Myokakuji temple group, whose leader was convicted of fraud. But the Unification Church court order was written according to the Japanese civil code rather than its penal law like the previous cases.