The investigation followed months of public outrage and questions about the group\u2019s fundraising and recruitment tactics after Shinzo Abe\u2019s assassination last year. The man accused of shooting Abe allegedly was motivated by the former prime minister\u2019s links to the church that he blamed for bankrupting his family.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Rev Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, and his wife in 1992.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n The request submitted to the Tokyo District Court asks for it to issue a dissolution order revoking the church\u2019s status as a religious organisation. Education Ministry officials submitted 5000 pieces of documents and evidence in cardboard boxes to the court to support its request.<\/p>\n The process involves hearings and appeals from both sides and would take a while. If the order is approved and its legal status is stripped, the church could still operate but would lose its tax exemption privilege as a religious organisation and would face financial setbacks.<\/p>\n The request was made a day after Education Minister Masahito Moriyama announced a panel of experts had endorsed the revocation request based on the findings of the ministry\u2019s investigation into the church\u2019s fundraising tactics and other allegations.<\/p>\n The Japan branch of the South Korea-based church, once known as \u201cthe Moonies\u201d and which officially calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, earlier condemned the government\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our deepest regret that the Japanese government made the serious decision based on distorted information provided by a leftist lawyers\u2019 group formed for the purpose of destroying our organisation,\u201d the church said in a statement late Thursday. \u201cIt will be a stain in Japan\u2019s constitutional history.\u201d<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s Education Minister Masahito Moriyama speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Kyodo\/AP<\/cite><\/p>\n As part of the investigation, officials interviewed more than 170 people allegedly harmed by the fundraising tactics and other problems. The church failed to respond to dozens of questions during the seven inquiries, Moriyama said.<\/p>\n The church tried to steer its followers\u2019 decision-making, using manipulative tactics, making them buy expensive goods and donate beyond their financial ability and causing fear and harm to them and their families, Moriyama said Thursday.<\/p>\n The tactics seriously deviated from the law on religious groups, in which the purpose of the churches\u2019 legal status is to give people peace of mind, he said. \u201cThe activities are wrongful conducts under the Civil Code and their damages are immense.\u201d<\/p>\n Shinzo Abe was assassinated on July 8 last year. <\/span><\/p>\n The Agency for Cultural Affairs found 32 cases of civil lawsuits acknowledging damages totaling 2.2 billion yen ($23 million) for 169 people, while the number of settlements reached in or outside court totalled 20.4 billion yen and involved 1550 people, Moriyama said.<\/p>\n Japan has in place hurdles for restraining religious activities due to lessons from the pre-war and wartime oppression of freedom of religion and thought.<\/p>\n The Unification Church obtained legal status as a religious organisation in Japan in 1968 amid an anti-communist movement supported by Abe\u2019s grandfather, former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi.<\/p>\n The church has acknowledged excessive donations but says the problem has been mitigated for more than a decade. It also has pledged further reforms.<\/p>\n Experts say Japanese followers are asked to pay for sins committed by their ancestors during Japan\u2019s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, and that the majority of the church\u2019s worldwide funding comes from Japan.<\/p>\n Decades of cozy ties between the church and the country\u2019s governing Liberal Democratic Party were revealed since Abe\u2019s assassination and have eroded support for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida\u2019s government. Kishida told reporters on Thursday that the government\u2019s decision to seek the revocation order was made carefully based on facts and was not political, denying speculation it was intended to shore up dwindling public support.<\/p>\n If the church\u2019s status is revoked, it would be the first under civil law. Two earlier cases involved criminal charges \u2013 the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and the Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n