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2023 July 5 - 11 TOP3 [POLITICS]

1 year after fatal shooting of ex-PM Abe

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

It has been one year since former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was shot to death on July 8 during his canvassing speech in Nara City (Nara Pref.). Violent acts of this kind, no matter what reason there may be, are ill-justified. Violence against free speech is the most heinous crime destroying democracy. The Japanese Communist Party will continue working to establish a society which does not allow any act of suppressing speech with violence.

Suspect Yamagami Tetsuya was indicted for murder. His mother is a believer of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the formerly Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity known as the Unification Church (Moonies). The huge amount of her donations to the Unification Church ended up breaking apart his family. Abe in 2021 sent a meeting of the Moonies-affiliated organization a video message showing his respect for the Moonies. It is said that Yamagami knew the Abe-Moonies connection and plotted the murder.

The Unification Church is an antisocial cult, hiding its true identity to advance its group agenda. It forces its members to donate a lot of money and buy expensive items by using spiritual tactics. Many politicians of the Liberal Democratic Party, including Abe, had a close relationship with and gave endorsement to this cult, obviously leading to the spread of damage throughout Japan.

However, the LDP refused to entirely reveal its ties with the Unification Church, leaving the issue to individual politicians. The LDP did not explain the Abe-Moonies link as he "already passed away" and pardoned former LDP Secretary-General Hosoda Hiroyuki who had delivered a speech at a Moonies event in 2019 as he is the House of Representatives speaker and thus is not holding an LDP membership.

An LDP faction called "Seiwakai" chaired by Abe and Hosoda was always at the center of the half-century LDP-Moonies relationship. The International Federation for Victory over Communism is an anti-communism rightist group, closely affiliated with the Unification Church. It was Abe's grandfather Kishi Nobusuke, former prime minister, who invited this group to Japan in late 1960s precisely because of their anti-communist ideology and activities.

Abe, reportedly, allocated Moonies' votes to LDP candidates in national elections. Hosoda who in January this year denied a collusive relationship with the Moonies admitted that Abe "had a long-standing deep relationship" with the Moonies. The Unification Church in 2015 changed its formal name from the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. The background of why and the process the Cultural Affairs Agency which was then under the Abe government permitted the name change is still unknown.

The general public is entitled to access to the full revelation of the LDP-Moonies ties and to have the party sever that connection. A law to prevent unfair solicitation of monetary contributions was enacted in the Diet last year. However, the law is far from sufficient as a way to stop serious damage caused by antisocial "religious" cults. It is urgently necessary to create an effective relief system.

Past related articles:
> Lower House speaker admits, 'I knew about ex-PM Abe's longstanding ties with Moonies' [January 26, 2023]
> Ex-Education Minister Shimomura may have approved Moonies' name change [July 24, 2022]
> Akahata's city news editor: Politicians benefitting from the Moonies are on the side of perpetrator [January 14, 2023]
> Amid doubts over effectiveness, bill regarding relief of Unification Church victims enacted [December 11, 2022]
> LDP colludes with Moonies on anticommunism stance [September 10, 2022]