More than 100 Japan lawmakers had links with Unification Church: survey

Findings show 106 of 712 lawmakers had ties to the church, with those from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party accounting for 82 of the total

Lawmakers’ ties to church reveal they failed to apply adequate risk management practices and ‘lack the qualities of a politician’, analyst notes

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Couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows in the Unification Church’s mass wedding in 2020. Photo: AP

Published: 11:32am, 14 Aug 2022

More than 100 of all the 712 lawmakers in Japan have had some connections with the controversial Unification Church, with nearly 80 per cent of them belonging to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a Kyodo News survey showed on Saturday.

In the survey with a response rate of more than 80 per cent, 106 had links with the church such as attending events hosted by entities associated with the religious group, which has come under renewed attention following former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination last month, or receiving electoral cooperation from its members.

Lawmakers from the LDP, now headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, accounted for 82 of the total, highlighting close ties between the main ruling party and the church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s and identified as a cult by critics.

The church has drawn public scrutiny after Abe’s assailant said he had harboured a grudge against the group and believed that the former prime minister had ties with it.

The gunman, Tetsuya Yamagami, was quoted by investigators as saying that his family was ruined after his mother made huge donations to the church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Abe provided a video message for an event held by an organisation associated with the church in September last year.

Tomoaki Iwai, a professor emeritus of political science at Nihon University, said the fact that about one-seventh of the country’s lawmakers had ties with the group revealed that they had failed to apply adequate risk management practices.

“They lack the qualities of a politician,” Iwai said.

More than 100 Japan lawmakers had links with Unification Church: survey

Findings show 106 of 712 lawmakers had ties to the church, with those from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party accounting for 82 of the total Lawmakers’ ties to church reveal they failed to apply adequate risk management practices and ‘lack the qualities of a politician’, analyst notes

Findings show 106 of 712 lawmakers had ties to the church, with those from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party accounting for 82 of the total

Lawmakers’ ties to church reveal they failed to apply adequate risk management practices and ‘lack the qualities of a politician’, analyst notes