What is the Unification Church and why did a Japanese court order it dissolved?

TOKYO (AP) — A controversial South Korean church with powerful political connections faces dissolution in Japan after a Tokyo court ordered a revokation of its legal status after the government accused it of manipulative fundraising and recruitment tactics that sowed fear among followers and harmed their families.

The Tokyo District court’s ruling would end the Unification Church’s tax-exempt status in Japan and force it to liquidate its assets. The church said it is considering an immediate appeal to the country’s highest court.

The Unification Church has faced hundreds of lawsuits in Japan from families who say that it manipulated members into draining their savings to make donations, but for decades it largely escaped official scrutiny and maintained close links with the governing Liberal Democratic Party.

That changed in 2022, when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated. The man accused of shooting Abe allegedly was motivated by the former prime minister’s links to the church and blamed it for bankrupting his family. The killing drew public attention and prompted investigations into the church’s practices and its links to powerful politicians.

What is the Unification Church?

The church was founded in Seoul in 1954, a year after the end of the Korean War, by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah who preached new interpretations of the Bible and conservative, family-oriented value systems.

The church, which officially calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, champions anti-communism and the unification of the Korean Peninsula, which has been split between the totalitarian North and democratic South.

The church is perhaps best known for mass weddings where it paired off couples, often from different countries, and renewed the vows of those already married, at places like stadiums and gymnasiums. The group is said to have a global membership of millions, including hundreds of thousands in Japan.

The church faced accusations in the 1970s and ‘80s of using devious recruitment tactics and brainwashing adherents into turning over huge portions of their salaries to Moon. The church has denied the allegations, saying many new religious movements face similar accusations in their early years.

Experts say Japanese followers are asked to pay for sins committed by their ancestors during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, and that the majority of the church’s worldwide funding comes from Japan.

Why was the church ordered dissolved?

The Education Ministry asked a Tokyo court to dissolve the church in October 2023, accusing it of trying to steer its followers’ 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.

On Tuesday, the Tokyo District court granted the request, writing that the church’s problems were extensive and continuous, and a dissolution order is necessary because it is not likely it could voluntarily reform, according to NHK television.

The Unification Church 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.

The Japanese branch of the church has criticized the request as a serious threat to religious freedom and the human rights of its followers. In a statement Tuesday, it called the court order “truely regrettable” and “unjust,” adding that the decision is based on “a wrong legal interpretation and absolutely unacceptable.”

How did the church come under scruntiny in Japan?

The 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and subsequent investigations unearthed decades of cozy ties between the Unification Church and Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party and triggered public outrage.

The man accused of shooting Abe at a campaign event allegedly told police he was motivated by the former prime minister’s links to the church, which he said bankrupted his family due to his mother’s excessive donations.

Abe was known for his arch-conservative views on security and history issues and appeared at events organized by church affiliates.

What are the church’s links to world leaders?

Throughout his life, Moon worked to make his church into a worldwide religious movement and expand its business and charitable activities. Moon was convicted of tax evasion in 1982 and served a prison term in New York. He died in 2012.

The church has developed relations with conservative world leaders including U.S. presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and more recently Donald Trump.

Moon also had ties with North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un.

Moon said in his autobiography that he asked Kim to give up his nuclear ambitions, and that Kim responded that his atomic program was for peaceful purposes and he had no intention to use it to “kill (Korean) compatriots.”

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Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed.