Tokyo, Japan CNN — Japan’s authorities on Friday requested a court docket to order the dissolution of the Unification Church department in Japan following the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022. The federal government’s transfer comes after a months-long probe into the church, formally identified in Japan because the Household Federation for World Peace and Unification. The investigation adopted claims by the suspected shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, that he fatally shot Abe as a result of he believed the chief was related to the church, which Yamagami blamed for bankrupting his household by way of the extreme donations of his mom, a member. Earlier in January, Japanese prosecutors indicted Yamagami on homicide and firearm prices. The federal government’s investigation concluded that the group’s practices – together with fund-raising actions that allegedly pressured followers to make exorbitant donations – violated the 1951 Non secular Companies Act. That legislation permits Japanese courts to order the dissolution of a non secular group if it has dedicated an act “clearly discovered to hurt public welfare considerably.” The Tokyo District Courtroom will now make a judgment based mostly on the proof submitted by the federal government, based on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. That is the third time the Japanese authorities has sought a dissolution order for a non secular group accused of violating the act. It additionally sought to dissolve the Aum Shinrikyo cult, after a few of its members carried out a lethal 1995 sarin fuel assault on the Tokyo subway system, which left dozens lifeless and 1000’s injured, and Myokaku-ji Temple, whose clergymen defrauded individuals by charging them for exorcisms. The courts dominated with the federal government on each orders. The Unification Church in Japan has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, pledging reform and labeling the information protection towards it as “biased” and “faux.” On Thursday, it issued a press release, saying it was “very regrettable” that the federal government was in search of the dissolution order, notably because it had been “engaged on reforming the church” since 2009. It added that it might make authorized counterarguments towards the order in court docket. If disbanded, the Unification Church, based by the Reverend Solar Myung Moon in South Korea in 1954, would lose its standing as a non secular company in Japan and be disadvantaged of tax advantages. Nonetheless, it may nonetheless function as a company entity. Specialists argue that an order to disband the group utterly may take years to course of and will even danger pushing the entity’s actions underground. Police have idea about what motivated Shinzo Abe homicide suspect The Unification Church grew to become identified worldwide for mass weddings, by which 1000’s of {couples} get married concurrently, with some brides and grooms assembly their betrothed for the primary time on their wedding ceremony day. Public scrutiny of the church in Japan elevated after Abe was fatally shot throughout an election marketing campaign speech final July. Abe’s alleged assailant informed police that his household had been ruined due to the large donations his mom made to a non secular group, which he alleged had shut ties to the late former prime minister, based on NHK. A spokesperson for the Unification Church confirmed to reporters in Tokyo that the suspect’s mom was a member, Reuters reported, however stated neither Abe nor the suspected killer have been members. Following Abe’s dying native media carried a collection of studies claiming varied different lawmakers of the nation’s ruling social gathering had hyperlinks to the church, prompting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to order an investigation. Kishida informed reporters Thursday that ruling social gathering lawmakers had minimize ties with the spiritual group, amid considerations that the Unification Church had been making an attempt to wield political affect. Since final November, Japan’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs has questioned and sought to acquire paperwork from the Unification Church whereas additionally amassing testimonies from round 170 individuals who say they have been pressured into making large donations identified in Japan as “religious gross sales.” The follow entails asking followers to purchase objects like urns and amulets on the grounds that doing so will appease their ancestors and save future generations, based on Sakurai Yoshihid, a non secular research skilled at Hokkaido College. CNN has contacted the Unification Church for an official remark however has not but heard again. This isn’t the primary time the Unification Church has been on the heart of an issue. Naomi Honma, a former Unification Church member, informed CNN that between 1991 and 2003, she labored on a authorized case known as “Give Us Again Our Youth,” a lawsuit that alleged the Unification Church had used misleading and manipulative strategies to recruit unsuspecting members of the general public. This, they argued, had the potential to violate the liberty of thought and conscience upheld by Article 20 of Japan’s structure. After a 14-year trial, a number of plaintiff testimonies and a 999-page report outlining the “thoughts management” strategy of the group, the trial had its second. The Sapporo District Courtroom made a landmark ruling in favor of 20 former Unification Church members who had sued the group as a part of the case. It ordered the Unification Church to pay roughly 29.5 million yen ($200,000) in damages for recruiting and indoctrinating individuals “whereas hiding the church’s true id” and for “coercing some former members into buying costly objects and donating giant quantities of cash.” In a separate controversy, between 1987 and 2021, the Unification Church in Japan incurred claims for damages over the sale of amulets and urns that totaled round $1 billion, based on the Nationwide Attorneys Community towards Non secular Gross sales – a gaggle established in 1987 particularly to oppose the Unification Church. Nobutaka Inoue, an skilled on modern Japanese faith at Kokugakuin College, is important of the strategies utilized by the church to recruit and lift funds. Nonetheless, he additionally notes that a few of its members felt comfortable and at peace after making donations to the Unification Church. Some critics of the Unification Church say the federal government’s actions don’t go far sufficient because it may nonetheless function as a non-religious group. One choice for the federal government could be to hunt a court docket order stripping the church of its company standing, too, however specialists say that might take as much as two years to course of. Sakurai, the spiritual research skilled, cautioned that if the Unification Church loses its standing as a non secular company, it might not be below the management of Japan’s Ministry of Schooling and Cultural Affairs, making it more durable to control its actions. Sakurai pointed to the case of Aum, noting that after the sarin fuel assault the Japanese authorities revoked recognition of the group as a non secular group however continued to control it by way of a brand new legislation handed in 1999 that licensed continued police surveillance of its actions. However making a brand new legislation that will permit the federal government to proceed to look at over the Unification Church’s actions – even when one may very well be handed – wouldn’t work as properly, Sakurai warned. “(Aum) solely numbers over 1,200 members or so; nonetheless, the Unification Church has penetrated many layers of Japan’s society – some members are housewives, some work in factories, others are lecturers, so the police can’t watch all of the actions or actions of the Unification Church,” Sakurai stated. Some specialists say Japan must do extra to coach the general public about non-traditional religions, which some see as having a rising affect in society. Kimiaki Nishida, a social psychologist and chairman of the Japan Society for Cult Prevention and Restoration (JSCPR), identified that state and faith have been separated in Japan following World Warfare II, and the brand new structure forbade instructing spiritual research in school. This made faith basically a taboo matter, Nishida stated, and to at the present time, spiritual schooling isn’t supplied at elementary, junior, or excessive faculties in Japan, in contrast to in most EU member states. This, based on Toshiyuki Tachikake, a professor at Osaka College specializing in cult countermeasures since 2009, has left college students – notably at college campuses – susceptible to being pressured into recruitment. He and different specialists say extra ought to be carried out to coach younger Japanese about faith. “We’d like spiritual schooling in faculties. Giving somebody a broad understanding of various religions and their teachings permits them to make an knowledgeable resolution on whether or not they need to be part of a sure group if a recruiter ever approached them,” stated Tachikake.