January 14, 2023

Prosecutors on January 13 indicted Yamagami Tetsuya on the charge of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. Akahata on the following day ran a bylined article by Miura Makoto, Akahata's city news editor. An excerpt from the article is as follows:

No matter the reason, one cannot take away another person's life by violence. The incident is believed to have influenced voters' choice in the House of Councilors election. To have resultantly distorted the election, which was supposed to be fair, should be strongly criticized.

Presumably, the incident was triggered by Yamagami's deep grudge toward the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, known as the Moonies or the former Unification Church, with which former PM Abe had close connections. Yamagami's mother was a Unification Church believer. She donated more than 100 million yen to the Moon cult, resulting in personal bankruptcy and making her children endure hard straits. It is obvious that excessive demands by the cult for money contributions drove the Yamagami family into bankruptcy.

The Moonies came to Japan in 1958. The National Lawyers Network against Spiritual Sales determined that damages caused by the "spiritual sales" of costly goods as well as by the enormous monetary donations amounted to about 123.7 billion yen between 1987 and 2021.

According to an Akahata survey, there are about 80,000 children of Moonies members. From their childhoods, the second generations are indoctrinated by the cult and by the parents. They are forced to worship Moon Sun-Myung, the founder of the cult, and his wife Han Hak-ja as Messiahs and are implanted with the idea that communism is the "Satan among Satans".

Why is it that the cult can be active for such a long time without being deprived of its religious corporation status? It is mainly because that top executives of the Liberal Democratic Party as typified by ex-PM Abe have been colluding with the cult. Starting with former PM Kishi Nobusuke, fomer PM Fukuda Takeo, former PM Nakasone Yasuhiro and Lower House Speaker Hosoda Hiroyuki all had kept cozy relations with this cult. Even today, as many as 180 sitting LDP Dietmembers were found to have a certain kind of connection with or receive election-related support from that organization.

It was also found out that the Moonies helped the LDP deliver anti-communist handbills during election campaigns in order to defame the Japanese Communist Party. The Moon cult in tandem with many LDP politicians has promoted its reactionary ideology hostile to the present Constitution as well as to gender equality.

Politicians benefitting from the cooperation of the Moonies should understand that they have been on the side of a criminal perpetrator. Without delay, the government should demand the disbandment of the Moonies in Japan. Of course, it is essential to clarify the whole truth behind the cozy relationship between LDP politicians and the Moonies. This will be the way to prevent the spread of further damage and be a first step to help victims rebuild their lives.