#unification church in japan

[whatisonthemoon]

Kumi Taguchi’s first Dateline report, The Church and the Assassin, which investigates links between the 2022 assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and the Unification Church, aka “the Moonies”, opened her eyes to a side of her ancestral homeland she hadn’t seen before.

On family trips, and while filming her 2019 ABC documentary, Kumi’s Japan, in which she sought to understand her father’s last wishes, the Insight host came to know only a peaceful, harmonious country.

“It was the first time I have dug into a current, controversial story, and it felt different being there,” says Taguchi. “It was such a privilege, and a great way in which to look at my own sense of that country, still with these gentle, polite, lovely people, but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface.”

In the potentially explosive documentary, Taguchi meets with investigative journalist Yasuomi Sawa at the Yokohama Archives of History in Tokyo to learn about Abe’s connections with the Unification Church. (Abe’s alleged killer told investigators he was motivated by a grudge he held against the church over his mother’s bankruptcy.) Bizarre footage is also shown of Abe and Donald Trump at a Church event.

“What I know from my dad [who was an investigative journalist in Japan] and what I saw in Mr Sawa, is that Japanese journalists are very thorough,” says Taguchi. “You’d think maybe there’s a sense of restriction and they don’t want to criticise the government. There’s none of that. Speaking to Mr Sawa reminded me of that robust journalistic heritage in Japan, especially in that massive building in which every newspaper in the country is archived daily. Japan still has a very strong print industry where physical newspapers are still massively popular.”

In heartbreaking interviews, Taguchi speaks with people who claim their lives have been destroyed by the church’s donations requirements. She also conducts conversations, inside a shuttered church premises, with church members, including a leader.

“There’s a lot of fear among church members. But when we arrived, they were so welcoming. I was worried it might feel a little like [dealing with the Church of] Scientology, like, ‘Oh god, now I’m on the radar!’ I didn’t feel like that at all. We were very open and honest with what we were doing and what questions we were asking, and why we felt we needed to ask them.”

Regular viewers of Dateline, which is Australia’s longest-running international current affairs program, broadcast since 1984, may notice a shift in tone towards the end of the report. After a commercial break, Taguchi appears in the home of a young mother who has prepared for disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear explosions or military attacks, by installing a tiny portable bunker in her living room.

“It feels like a quirky thing at the end,” says Taguchi. “But it’s part of the culture in Japan and such disasters are not out of the realm of possibility.”

The structural change to include a five-minute human interest segment, following the main 25-minute report, is intended to broaden audience appeal and cater for digital platforms.

As well as umpiring Insight forums for her second year, a job Taguchi relishes because, “I feel like that’s where we need to constantly be aiming for in our daily lives – it’s OK to disagree and it doesn’t have to end in fisticuffs”, she plans to film another, as yet unspecified, report for Dateline. Other topics in the program’s 2023 slate include Scotland’s housing crisis due to the short-term rental industry and stories from Jamaica, Turkey, Ukraine and Denmark.

“I find it amazing that a program like Dateline can be still so strong when there’s so much competition in such a globalised market,” says Taguchi. “Twenty years ago, I remember switching on Dateline, and it was my only window into the world. I wonder whether its longevity is because it’s not a deliberate Australian lens, but there’s a way in which Australians ask questions and frame stories. Generally, as Australian storytellers, I don’t think we’re afraid to be a bit bold.”

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Mrs. Moon demanded that all UC paid staff resign by October 1st.

News about the Unification Church of Japan Hak Ja Han doesn’t want to pay her staff, but instead use that money to fund her newest temple.

For the past two years donations have been almost zero in Japan. In the midst of a serious financial crisis with no donations from Japan, Mrs Moon is still pouring everything into the Cheonwon Palace at Cheongpyeong. She sold real estate and borrowed from financial institutions.

All church money is being pulled into her temple.

It’s being said that every time Mrs Moon tours the temple to check on the building progress she finds more ways to spend money either in furniture, more elaborate decorations or upgrading tech.

Then there is this Japanese leader who is receiving revelations from Sun Myung Moon in the spiritual world. With passionate yelling he tells members that Moon is a hundred percent supporting Mrs. Moon, and the light from the new temple will transform the evil. This leader is known in Japan for creating a team and a teaching that would help members file for bankruptcy, believing that bankruptcy was a divine law.

In the end Mrs. Moon is running out of money and probably losing membership because of her own greed.

Also her closest two aides, one of which is Mrs. Won Ju McDevitt, are under investigation by the police for tax evasion and embezzlement.

___________________________________

Unification Church President Hak Ja Han issued an emergency directive, “Submit resignation letters en masse!”

통일교 한학자 총재 긴급 지시, “일괄 사직서 내라!”

統一教会の韓鶴子総裁緊急指示「一括辞表を出せ！」

Hak-Ja Han kicked out three of her sons and became the sinless object of worship in the movement founded by Sun Myung Moon

$42million of Donations Gambled Away by Hak Ja Han and Unification Church Leaders in Las Vegas

[briteredoctober]

My favorite thing about the assassination of Shinzo Abe with a makeshift shotgun back in 2022 is how the assassin stated his reasoning, and the Japanese population overwhelmingly went "you know, he's not wrong" and started protesting the funeral.

[trendynewsnow]

The Political Landscape of Japan: Challenges for the Liberal Democratic Party

The Political Landscape of Japan: A Turning Point for the L.D.P. The political dominance of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (L.D.P.) has been nothing short of extraordinary. Since its formation in 1955, the party has played a pivotal role in shaping Japan’s governance, showcasing a remarkable ability to maintain power despite ongoing internal rivalries and a frequent turnover of leadership. This…

[purplespacecats]

y'all please for the love of god do not cite the washington times as if it were a legit source they are literally owned and run by the fucking moonies

[memecucker]

Most politically successful assassination of a head of state by a massive margin

[hottoddyinjapan]

Mind blown.. to the moon?

I live in Japan.

The assassination of Shinzo Abe was easy to sweep under the rug as a lunatic who built his own gun and killed a prominent political figure. Later it was revealed that his motivation was to bring to the forefront Abe’s family’s connection to a religious organization the Japanese call Toitsu Kyokai. This is the Unification church.

The funny thing is that in retrospect, the assassin’s goals were met. The media has talked extensively about this church and its connections to the leading political party in Japan. Apparently they have funded a lot of politicians’ campaigns, so there actually is some connection. I thought this was sad that the media played into the hands of this crazy person. It sets a dangerous precedent. Indeed leading up to the planned national funeral ceremony, an elderly man set himself on fire, again to draw attention to this connection to the religious group. This news did not really make the Japanese TV news, but I read about it in the international media. (Sorry no links tonight, feeling lazy)

All this time I had thought that this church was one that I had never heard of. Until, in my current Sociology textbook I found a link I was not aware of. The Unification church has also been historically referred to as the Moonies, after the founder, a Korean man by the name of Moon. Wow. Mind blown. I have always thought this group was on the nutty side. That the Japanese politicians allowed their lobbying dollars to gain them any power in this country is inexcusable.

Politically flavored rant over...

[collapsedsquid]

Looking forward to the american moonies publishing newspapers about how we need to re-nukeJapan

[zvaigzdelasas]

30 Sep 23

[whatisonthemoon]

MAY 8, 2023

Ninety percent of prefectural assembly members with ties to the Unification Church were re-elected in the unified local elections in April, but their popularity showed signs of waning, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

The unified elections were the first collective nationwide vote held since the Unification Church came under fire again for its fund-collection methods following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July last year, apparently over his ties to the religious group.

According to an Asahi Shimbun survey conducted in August and September last year, 292 of the 2,314 responding prefectural assembly members acknowledged their connections with the church, now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The ties included attendance at Unification Church-related meetings or events, and receiving support from the group in election campaigns.

The terms for 251 church-connected assembly members expired in spring. Of them, 228 sought re-election in the April 9 elections held in 41 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, while 23 members did not run due to age or other reasons.

Of these candidates, 206, or 90.4 percent, were re-elected. Twenty-two members, or 9.6 percent, lost their seats.

Among those re-elected, 47, or around 23 percent, ran uncontested.

More than 80 percent of the church-tied prefectural assembly members were from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Among all 1,111 LDP incumbents who ran in the local assembly elections, 98 members, or 8.8 percent, were defeated.

Of all 228 candidates who confirmed their ties to the church, 118 gained fewer votes than in the previous election, while 42 garnered more ballots.

It is not clear if the church ties affected vote counts for 68 of the candidates because they ran uncontested in either of the two latest elections, or won in a by-election held within the past four years.

However, some candidates lost several thousand to 10,000 votes compared to their tallies in the previous election after their connections with the church became known.

Setsuko Sakuraba, 65, an LDP candidate, sought a second term in the Niigata prefectural assembly from the electoral district of Joetsu city.

But she was defeated in the election after gaining 9,536 votes. That was 2,459 votes fewer than her total in the previous election, when she placed fourth and gained one of the five assembly seats for the city.

Sakuraba had attended Unification Church-related events and received support in her campaign from people connected to the group.

These ties were reported in local newspapers and The Asahi Shimbun.

After her election loss, Sakuraba said about her church ties, “It’s hard to say how much, but there must have been a significant impact (on the election results.)”

She said someone had placed stickers with words “Unification Church endorsed candidate” on her campaign posters in Joetsu city.

About 50 to 60 of these stickers were found, she said.

In the Tochigi prefectural assembly election, 82-year-old Kazuyoshi Itabashi of the LDP was elected for a national record 14th straight time.

Itabashi gained 10,411 votes in the election four years ago, but this time he received 7,674 ballots, down by 2,737.

He also received the fewest votes among the five elected candidates representing the Oyama city and Nogi town electoral district.

“I think there was a slight decrease in votes,” he said after the election.

In September last year, reports surfaced that Itabashi was serving as head of the prefectural association of a church-related organization called the Federation for World Peace.

He resigned from the position.

Before the election, a Buddhist organization that had supported Itabashi told him that it would withhold its support because of his connection to the Federation for World Peace.

The Unification Church’s public relations department told The Asahi Shimbun, “Our organization has never had involvement with specific candidates or political parties.”

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July 2022. Inset: Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, in 1984.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

On the last morning of his life, Shinzo Abe arrived in the Japanese city of Nara, famous for its ancient pagodas and sacred deer. His destination was more prosaic: a broad urban intersection across from the city’s main train station, where he would be giving a speech to endorse a lawmaker running for reelection to the National Diet, Japan’s parliament. Abe had retired two years earlier, but because he was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, his name carried enormous weight. The date was July 8, 2022.

In photos taken from the crowd, Abe—instantly recognizable by his wavy, swept-back hair; charcoal eyebrows; and folksy grin—can be seen stepping onto a makeshift podium at about 11:30 a.m., one hand clutching a microphone. A claque of supporters surrounds him. No one in the photos seems to notice the youngish-looking man about 20 feet behind Abe, dressed in a gray polo shirt and cargo pants, a black strap across his shoulder. Unlike everyone else, the man is not clapping.

Abe started to speak. Moments later, his remarks were interrupted by two loud reports, followed by a burst of white smoke. He collapsed to the ground. His security guards ran toward the man in the gray polo shirt, who held a homemade gun—two 16-inch metal pipes strapped together with black duct tape. The man made no effort to flee. The guards tackled him, sending his gun skittering across the pavement. Abe, shot in the neck, would be dead within hours.

At a Nara police station, the suspect—a 41-year-old named Tetsuya Yamagami—admitted to the shooting barely 30 minutes after pulling the trigger. He then offered a motive that sounded too outlandish to be true: He saw Abe as an ally of the Unification Church, a group better known as the Moonies—the cult founded in the 1950s by the Korean evangelist Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Yamagami said his life had been ruined when his mother gave the church all of the family’s money, leaving him and his siblings so poor that they often didn’t have enough to eat. His brother had committed suicide, and he himself had tried to.

“My prime target was the Unification Church’s top official, Hak Ja Han, not Abe,” he told the police, according to an account published in January in a newspaper called The Asahi Shimbun. He could not get to Han—Moon’s widow—so he shot Abe, who was “deeply connected” to the church, Yamagami said, just as Abe’s grandfather, also a prime minister and renowned political figure in Japan, had been.

Investigators looked into Yamagami’s wild-sounding claims and found, to their alarm, that they were true. After a quick huddle, the police appear to have decided that the Moonie connection was too sensitive to reveal, at least for the moment. It might even affect the outcome of the elections for the Upper House of the Diet, set to take place on July 10. At a press conference on the night of the assassination, a police official would say only that Yamagami had carried out the attack because he “harbored a grudge against a specific group and he assumed that Abe was linked to it.” When reporters clamored for details, the official said nothing.

After the election, the Unification Church confirmed press reports that Yamagami’s mother was a member, and the story quickly took off. The Moonies, it emerged, maintained a volunteer army of campaign workers who had long been a secret weapon not just for Abe but for many other politicians in his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which remains in power under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Later that month, the Japanese tabloid Nikkan Gendai published a list of 111 members of parliament who had connections to the church. In early September 2022, the LDP announced that almost half of its 379 Diet members had admitted to some kind of contact with the Unification Church, whether that meant accepting campaign assistance or paying membership fees or attending church events. According to a survey by The Asahi Shimbun, 290 members of prefectural assemblies, as well as seven prefectural governors, also said they had church ties. The rising numbers exposed a scandal hiding in plain sight: A right-wing Korean cult had a near-umbilical connection to the political party that had governed Japan for most of the past 70 years.

The Japanese were outraged not just by the appearance of influence-peddling but by a galling hypocrisy. Abe was a fervent nationalist, eager to rebuild Japan’s global standing and proudly unapologetic for its imperial past. Now he and his party had been caught in a secretive electoral alliance with a cult that—it soon emerged—had been accused of preying on Japanese war guilt to squeeze billions of dollars from credulous followers.

Follow LINK to read full story

[stackslip]

chapter 140 thoughts under the cut

fujimoto's goal of rewriting fire punch with a bit more silliness continues (i love the chainsaw pews)

fujimoto said i know writers who do subtlety and they're all cowards

BROBENI CONFIRMED. now to know if he's her younger brother who was gonna be put through college by kobeni's exploited labour (which..... gd damn that parallel with denji and nayuta......). also i've been told nobana is traditionally a female name.......... hm.

real, though in this context it sounds more like anti usamerican imperialism language repurposed for nationalist ends..... it's not fujimoto is uncritical of america either though considering the gun devil in part 1. fascinating to see where this might go and how much that kind of language parallels irl pro-japanese imperialism and nationalists' own discourse.

i find it fascinaing that kids are considered the only acceptable members of the cult only to be introduced to an adult leader several pages later lol. but obviously the cult (because this 200% is a cult) is filling a gap--the first half of part 1 showed us how much it fucking SUCKS to be even an ordinary kid both irl and in this world, the lack of agency and the poverty and being preyed upon by adults or abandoned entirely, and then mocked on national tv when they take the deaths of their classmates and friends seriously..... so of course so many would end up here, being told that adults really ARE dangerous and incapable of seeing the world the way they do. cleverly done, i hope fujimoto expands on this and doesn't fall back on Let Adults Take Care Of This

similarly i hope this doesn't fall into the liberal storytelling trap of "the government is bad, but this new group has appeared that's Even Worse, so the government is actually good now" that also appears in so many shounen tbh. i don't think he will bc even outside of the church public safety is still so fucked up

denji's expressions this chapter are top tier lmao. genius move to make denji the "straight man" in the previous few chapters where he's genuinely flabbergasted by how batshit everyone else is

FUCKING CRYING. yeah the implications are dire but. HOWL

again jokes asides there is SO MUCH to unpack here. you'll get married AND THEN become a member of the church (implying marriage is a requirement or, as said later, strongly encouraged to join the cult at all). sex is consummated immediately in the next room. so far we've mostly seen men and boys in charge of the church, except for fami/kiga......... which...... does not bode well. makes me wonder how many are pressured into marriage/sex both as a way to attract new male followers and as a way to keep control over all

speaking of which. it says student but they mean /high school students/, maybe even middle school students, aka again children! and again the language of Modernity Has Lied To Us, Child Marriage And Ownership Is The Way right there being recited. the appeal to nationalism and what is "natural", kids as property of their parents and the church,.... and yes i AM reminded of behemboth(?), the patriarchal city-cult of fire punch whose entire horrid existence is justified with "it's natural" and "we are saving people by giving them shelter here". the patriarchy is central here!

and of course the part about kids being born and raised into the church themselves...... after shinzo abe's death, japan's having a bit of a reckoning re the influence of cults in political life and vice versa, and particularly the impact on children raised in said cults. there's also been a reactionary backlash to the idea of *foreign* cults (like the unification church, originally from korea) having "too big" an influence on japan, versus the Good National Japanese Cults that are spared some of that backlash. so i find it interesting that fujimoto firmly grounds this as a *japanese* nationalist cult that claims to be trying to save the country from foreign influence. obviously i'd love to know more, bc i'm sure there's a lot of language and references in the original that i'm missing and that mirror irl japanese politics and reactionary tendencies.

denji's backlash in forcing kids to get married.... i do wonder how much of his backlash comes from the idea of forced child marriage (and being forced in general), or if he would have been okay with someone being pressured to have sex with him without marriage, or he wouldn't have thought about it tbh.

i want to see the chainsaw man bathroom............

the hybrids all coming together.... wonder if this means reze and quanxi will be back PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. but also in the context of the church.... the weapon hybrids were used as various governmental projects and living weapons for years--japan, china, the ussr, and i imagine the usa and other western powers had their own as well. then they got controlled by makima, and now they're in the church.... i hope we explore more of the abuse and parallels they have with denji, and see just how and why miri trusts in the church so much as a refuge compared to his previous abuse. ALSO BRING BACK REZE AND QUANXI GD PLEASE......

this is 200% the guy who was in the shadows telling haruka it was all planned. and again the irony of nobana talking about how this is a church by and for children, only to immediately be threatened by someone who is very obviously an adult in charge

his eyes REALLY freak me out btw, fujimoto did a great job at his expressions lol. also really love the detail of the suspenders and the

barem.... the closest i could find for that name's meaning was the hebrew for "son of nation" which. hm! worrisome!

so idk if fujimoto was TRYING to give this dude the vibes of a sexual predator but between the cult's pressuring kids to get married and have sex, his role as one of the sole adult "humans" around, his treatment of nobana, and his general demeanor and manner of speech + the themes of sexual abuse and predation in the series in general........ gd he gives me the absolute creeps lmao, incredible design and tone. also what he says here about asa which gives me SO MANY red flags and makes me think more of the patriarchal aspect of the cult too

the name of the chapter is "scales"..... which is associated with kiga, as the horseman of Famine. and of course during the whole chapter we hear about how the church is necessary and its actions help save lives etc etc etc. just as we heard the yakuza justify their existence to makima, just as public safety justified its own existence in terms of killing devils while really using them as a way to terrorize the population and threaten other nations.

i find it interesting that in a way, kiga gave a similar deal to asa but in far more positive a view. do these things for us, become this weapon for us, and this person you care about (or think you know even if briefly) will live. kiga was just a lot better at presenting it and obsfucating the actual horrors that would follow--denji however is in too deep, and doesn't buy into the bs anymore. so he's given much more stark and open a choice! just as public safety tried to threaten denji to keep quiet lest they kill nayuta and raise her as their own all over again! gd he and asa's lack of agency..... fuck me up so so bad

wondering if we're eventually going to come back to denji's motif of choosing a third choice and refusing the dual choice entirely! wonder if asa herself will only see a single solution in front of her every time......

anyhow. good chapter. there's gotta be a lot that i'm missing here in terms of relations to current japanese political context and i'd love to learn more on it tbh.

[fantasyinvader]

I've been thinking about the problematic elements to Almyra and... I think I got an answer that isn't complete crap.

Almyra was, even in Houses, not meant to be this ideal country. In his supports with Byleth, Claude reveals he came to Fodlan not to tear down boarders and shit, but to learn from Fodlan in order to make Almyra more accepting of outsiders. The unification stuff came about when he arrived, found out that wasn't the case, and then began blaming the Church (with TWSITD slipping him information to turn him against Rhea likely not being an isolated incident).

Claude is meant to be an outsider, someone not from Fodlan just like the player is. His initial suspicion of the Church is meant to reflect that of the player's, and with him learning to see Fodlan for what it is being his own path to enlightenment. I mean, he talks about going to confirm something with his own eyes in his paralogue, and he's the one to point out the diversity at Garreg Mach as well as how the Church doesn't actually teach isolationism.

In short, Claude was always meant to be something of a gullible idiot. Whereas the player may fall into the trap of supporting Edelgard despite the reveals, Claude taking his initial impressions as irrefutable facts are not the way to enlightenment. Hell, going with the Buddhist themes acting as if something is that concrete and being unwilling to budge in the face of more information is not how to do things. As you learn more, you're views are meant to change. Claude's whole thing of being an outsider is actually a hindrance to him, because it reveals how little he actually knows about his new environment.

If Claude is going around being unsubtle about not being from Fodlan, acting based on his initial assumptions when he came to Fodlan and not confirming things with his own eyes... we have a problem. If he's not going to recognize the problems with his own society and insist that he has the solutions for another one, there's also a problem there.

This isn't just Claude, this is also a message to the players. I've talked before how some of what Edelgard says lands differently in Japan. Japan is a meritocratic society, one where people are less inclined to help those in need because they haven't “earned it.” This kind of outlook has led to various issues within Japanese society, yet Edelgard wants to implement them herself. At the same time, the game hints that the society Edelgard wants to create isn't too far different from Almyra, the society Claude wants to fix, especially with Caspar's Japanese endings.

The game is telling you to see Fodlan, a land it's own creators said they wanted us to immerse ourselves in, for what it truly is. To not just believe the words of Edelgard and TWSITD, but to see things with our own eyes and realize the truth. To simply listen to what the game is actually trying to say, to look at what it is saying is right for Fodlan rather than assert our own beliefs on Fodlan much like Edelgard and the translators do. Because... we're outsiders intruding on Fodlan too, yet we have the power to derail the story in the BE route.

I think that's the point. Claude is supposed to be a parallel for us, the players. Almyra being presented as it is serves as a reminder that our world, our cultures, aren't perfect themselves. We are outsiders to the story, and as such we should look at what the story is saying is the answer rather than forcing our own views onto the game. Fodlan is telling us Edelgard isn't the answer, so that is what we should be acting on. Just like Claude eventually realizes that keeping Fodlan and Almyra separate is the way to go rather than forcing them together and instead learns from Fodlan, we the players should do the same. Keep Fodlan and IRL separate, but take the lessons from Houses back with us to the real world. Because, once more I must remind people, this is a game for middle-schoolers. CERO rating B, ages 12+.

You really think Nintendo is going to tell kids the stuff Edelgard does is good? Even NoA had to change stuff to make her appear more “heroic.” And isn't that really what storytelling is about? passing on messages and morals to the audience? Kinda hard to do that when the audience (or translators) is trying to twist things to suit their own beliefs.

[spurgie-cousin]

The Unification Church is confusing. Is it a Korean cult? In some pictures, the crowds look mostly Korean, but in others, they look mostly white.

The Unification Church was founded in South Korea around the time of WWII, and spread pretty rapidly there and in neighboring places like Japan until the late 60s and 70s when it started to branch out to Russia, eastern Europe, South America and eventually the United States (esp in areas with big south Korean populations).

One of their big things is to "promote intercultural, interracial, and international cooperation through the Unification world view" which sounds innocent enough, but it's just a PC way to say that they put a big focus on finding people to convert. Once they find someone who they deem convertible (preferably of a different race compared to the majority members of the church) they pull a "Married at First Sight" and marry then to a random church member, in a huge ceremony with tons of other couples, where they basically get married and converted officially at the same time.

So that's why sometimes you see large homogeneous looking congregations with only a small bit of diversity, or vice versa, because diversity is the main thing they're looking for when looking for converts and some church are better at it than others lol.

[captain-price-unofficially]

Remember kids, political assassinations work!