Japan Press Weekly

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2024 September 18 - 24 [POLITICS]

Photos of then PM Abe meeting with Unification Church president before election cause controversy

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akita, at a press conference in the Diet building on September 17, demanded that a full reinvestigation with regard to the organizational ties between the Liberal Democratic Party and the former Unification Church be conducted.

The press conference took place in response to an Asahi Shimbun article dated the same day with photos in which then Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and several other LDP executives are meeting with the president and leaders of the Unification Church (now the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) at LDP headquarters four days before the official announcement of the 2013 Upper House election.

Koike said, “It will be inevitable for the LDP to be recognized as the party which systematically received votes and support for its election campaign from the Unification Church, and in return, it may have given some favors to the organization,” adding, “I would say that these photos are irrefutable evidence.”

Also in the photos are former Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hagiuda Koichi and former Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo.

Koike said, “They must know what was discussed in the meeting with the Unification Church leaders. Hagiuda keeps saying that he ‘has no record or even memory’ of what was discussed, but such an argument is no longer acceptable. He should divulge the truth to the public.”

Akahata asked all nine candidates for the LDP presidential election if they had any connections with the Unification Church or Church-related organizations, and what their claims and policies are in regard to issues involving the religious cult. However, not a single candidate has responded to the Akahata request so far.

Koike criticized the nine candidates for pretending to be ignorant of Unification Church issues.