Sat, Jul 30, 2022 page5

• Abe killing spotlights Unification Church controversy

  ‘SPIRITUAL SALES’: Experts have accused the South Korean-founded organization of exploiting members using promises of absolution and guilt over Japan’s wartime past

  • AFP, TOKYO
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  The assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe by a man resentful of the Unification Church has resurfaced years of controversy over the group.

  Police say that Tetsuya Yamagami targeted Abe because he believed the former prime minister supported a “certain group” to which the man’s mother had made large donations.

  In a letter published by local media, Yamagami accused Abe of supporting the Unification Church and expressed resentment toward the group, which has confirmed his mother’s membership.

  

  A facility of the Unification Church is pictured in Seoul on Tuesday.

  Photo: AFP

  Former followers, lawyers and academics who study the church say reported details on Yamagami’s family fit a common pattern in Japan.

  Yamagami’s mother reportedly joined the church after her husband died by suicide and was quickly consumed by her faith.

  Yamagami’s uncle told local media that his nephew sometimes called him for help when his mother left her children alone and without food while attending church.

  She donated ￥100 million (about US$1 million at the time) to the church, he said, and later declared bankruptcy.

  That all sounds familiar to attorney Hiroshi Yamaguchi, who represents former church members.

  “Members are under pressure every day to make donations,” Yamaguchi said. “They tell you karma is attached to money and [donations] are the only way to save yourself. So you think you have to do it.”

  Known officially as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), the church was founded by Sun Myung Moon in South Korea in 1954 and its followers are colloquially known as “Moonies.”

  The Japan chapter began in 1959, and membership took off during the country’s 1980s economic boom — “an era in which people were unsure how to live their lives,” said Kimiaki Nishida, professor of social psychology at Tokyo’s Rissho University.

  Japan became a financial hub for the church, which taught Japanese believers that they needed to atone for their country’s occupation of Korea in World War II.

  “They allocate different roles to each country intentionally,” said Hotaka Tsukada, an associate professor of the sociology of religion at Joetsu University of Education. “They have [sales] manuals to exploit believers.”

  The church offered “spiritual sales” of exorbitantly priced goods including a ￥43 million statuette, which Japanese believers were told would absolve them or their ancestors.

  Huge outlays by members led to a backlash.

  Japan’s National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales says it has filed suits seeking ￥123.7 billion in damages for former followers since 1987.

  A series of arrests in the 2000s and verdicts against the church prompted limits on “spiritual sales,” but Yamaguchi said that believers are still pressed to meet monthly donation targets.

  “It’s a goal God decides,” the church tells members, he said. “It’s a quota they need to meet.”

  The church denies members are pressured.

  “Our view is that all donations before heaven must be freely given,” Unification Church media contact Demian Dunkley said. “FFWPU sometimes makes appeals for donations, but FFWPU members choose whether, when and how much they will give.”

  In 2005, Yamagami reportedly attempted suicide after his mother’s bankruptcy, hoping his siblings would receive an insurance payout.

  His older brother, a childhood cancer survivor, died by suicide a decade later.

  In a letter to an anti-church blogger sent the day before Abe’s murder, Yamagami said that his teen years were marred by his mother’s “overspending, family disruption and bankruptcy.”

  “The experience has distorted my entire life,” the letter published by local media said.

  Yamagami’s letter accused Abe of being “one of the most influential supporters of the Unification Church,” based partly on a speech the politician gave last year to a church-linked group.

  A former church member said that followers were shown pictures of Moon with prominent figures to encourage reverence.

  “It made me feel they have connections with politicians and Moon was a true Messiah,” she said.
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