In Japan, the primary way that the government recognizes a religious group’s legitimacy is by granting it tax exempt status.
Now, the Unification Church will lose that privilege and have its assets liquidated.
A court in Tokyo on Tuesday took the rare step of ordering the once-powerful religious group to be disbanded.
The church now goes by the official name of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. It has been found guilty of using manipulative recruiting and fundraising tactics that push families into making disastrous decisions and of violating its members’ human rights.
Hiroshi Yamaguchi is a lawyer for former church members in Japan.
“The church has a fundraising unit that tells members that their ancestors are trapped in hell because of karma, and the way to help them escape is by giving money to the church,” Yamaguchi told the Australian news program, SBS Dateline.
But despite Tuesday’s court ruling, the group is not banned from practicing or preaching its beliefs.
“Even after a religious group’s tax-exempt status gets taken away, its members can still carry out their religious activities under the law,” said Shoko Egawa, an expert on religious cults in Japan who teaches at Kanagawa University.
The Unification Church came under scrutiny in Japan after the 2022 assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe. The group denies any wrongdoing and says it’s considering an appeal.
The assassination was carried out by Tetsuya Yamagami, who walked over to where Abe was speaking to a small crowd outside of a train station, and shot him dead. Yamagami, whose mother was a former church member, was tackled and arrested. And he quickly confessed to the killing.
The World’s previous reporting focused on the deep ties between Abe’s political party and the Unification Church.
Keiko Kaburagi, a former church member in her late 40s, told The World that the killing made perfect sense to former church members.
“Of course, what Yamagami did was wrong, but what led to him taking that action is completely identical to my own experience.”
For decades, many members of Abe’s governing party received financial support from the Unification Church and attended the group’s events.
The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954 by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon. That’s where the group’s nickname — “the Moonies” — comes from.
The religious group is known for attracting followers from all over the world and conducting mass weddings. In 1982, more than 2,000 couples tied the knot during a ceremony at Madison Square Garden.
In downtown Tokyo earlier this year, members of the Unification Church were handing out fliers and preaching through a loudspeaker. They said that their group was facing persecution from the government.
But Takehiko Sakata, who’s with the church, said that won’t prevent them from spreading their message.
“It can be somewhat difficult, but we have faith,” Sakata said.
“Like the followers of Jesus after his crucifixion, we will not be running away.”