LDP Once Found Unification Church Good For Japan

Former Japanese Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo, was killed because his grandfather Kishi Nobusuke was instrumental in helping the Unification Church, which come to the spotlight following the assassination of Abe in July, to take roots in post-war Japan.

Tetsuya Yamagami, Abe's shooter, has told investigative agencies that Kishi "invited the church to Japan. So I killed Abe."

Japan has had three transformational prime ministers since 1955 and Kishi is called the father of the East Asian nation's postwar order.

Under Kishi, Japanese companies managed to access a seemingly infinite external market, aided by Washington. Japan rose to industrial pre-eminence with exports as the key engine of growth.

In return for Washington's gesture, Kishi was content to provide what the U.S. wanted. Kishi and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which he midwived, made all efforts to crush the people who stood against Japan's pro-U.S. inclinations. In fact, there were many in Japan who were up in arms against the imperial aspirations of the U.S. then.

To take on them, Kishi allowed the new religion (shin-shukyo) a free hand and the Unification Church, with its coercive spiritual sales tactics, flourished. The church is known for its mass weddings and has over the years faced questions over receiving donations.

Many of its followers, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, are currently cooling their feet behind bars in Japan in connection with money illegally obtained from the faithful through the use of threats. The Church is reported to have accepted huge donations from its adherents to the point that their finances are ruined.

Tetsuya harbored a grudge against the Church because his mother's massive donations ruined his life and he believed that Abe had ties with it.

The church was founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon and it came to Japan in 1968. Kishi, as Prime Minister, supported it. Soon, the nexus between the church and Japanese politicians, particularly LDP lawmakers, thrived.

The cozy ties between members of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed the nation virtually uninterrupted since the Second World War, surfaced following the party's former leader's assassination last month.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi apologized for links with the Unification Church, tracing back to 2012.

Akihiro Nishimura, the new environment minister, has confessed his share of sins and Katsunobu Kato, health minister, and Daishiro Yamagiwa, economic revitalization minister, admitted to having paid membership fees to the Church. Minoru Terada, a prime minister's adviser, admitted paying 20,000 yen ($170) in 2018.

Abe himself had links with the Unification Church. Last year he sent a video message to the Universal Peace Federation, an international group affiliated with the church. In the video, Abe praised the federation's cofounder Hak Ja Han Moon for her efforts in promoting traditional family values.

Police believe that the video might have motivated the suspect to kill Abe as he alleged that the church bankrupted his mother.

The ties have cast a shadow over Abe's state funeral, to be held on Sep. 27 at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan hall. The public is against giving Abe a 250 million yen ($1.8 million) state funeral in the midst of overseas dignitaries due to his ties with the Unification Church.

As revelations on the party's extensive ties to the church surfaced, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida apologized: "As president of the LDP, I honestly express my apology."

On Aug. 31, Kishida said his LDP lawmakers would have to sever ties with the Unification Church.

Kishida shuffled the cabinet on Aug. 10 to axe seven ministers who had ties with the church. Among them was Abe's younger brother, Nobuo Kishi, who admitted that church followers volunteered in his election campaign.

The damage was done with Kishi.