Japan district court orders disbandment of controversial Unification Church News
Kabelleger / David Gubler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Japan district court orders disbandment of controversial Unification Church

The Tokyo District Court ordered the dissolution of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church, colloquially known as “moonies,” following an inquest from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology into alleged violations of the Japanese Civil Code and Religious Corporations Act, according to local media.

Presiding Judge Suzuki found that the methods of soliciting donations used by the Church met the standards of a tort under the Japanese Civil Code, as the conduct “violates the rights of others and leads to a situation that is clearly recognized as significantly harming the public welfare” and therefore satisfies the conditions for dissolution under the Religious Corporation Act. In particular, Judge Suzuki pointed to aggressive methods used to solicit donations from members in the country. Previous reports found the church would engage in tactics such as accusing members of having “Ancestral Karma” and pressuring economically disadvantaged individuals to donate excessively to alleviate themselves from the burden of the alleged “ancestral karma.”

In response, the Unification Church referred to the decision as “clearly unfair. It is completely unacceptable” and that “would do their utmost in the appeal hearing.” They have expressed an intention to appeal the judgment to the appeal court. The Church also claims there has been a significant decrease in “damages’ done since 2009. Nonetheless, Judge Suzuki referred to the shift in fundraising measures as “insufficient” and stated “it is unavoidable to order the dissolution of the cult.”

A total of 32 civil judgments have recognized the Unification Church as illegally pressuring members into donation until now, even going as far as requiring members to pay their retirement benefits or insurance payouts. The Unification Church has paid out 2.2 billion yen in court-ordered damages and over 20 billion yen in settlement damages since 1980.

The dissolution order would remove the separate legal personality of the church but would not prevent it from continuing to exist as a voluntary association. The legal implication of such a distinction is that the church would no longer be subject to preferential tax treatments, and the assets of the church would be sold. Nonetheless, the court has not imposed any criminal penalties, and the organization may continue to exist.

This is the third organization to have ever been dissolved under Article 81 of the Religious Corporations Act, the two former being the Aum Shinrikyo, responsible for the Tokyo Sarin gas attack, and the Myokakuji temple, who engaged in widespread fraud. Article 81 of the Religious Corporations Act allows the dissolution of religious organizations where it is found they either “commit an act which is clearly found to harm public welfare substantially” or “commits an act which deviates substantially from the purpose of a religious organization prescribed in the provisions of Article 2, or fails to carry out any act for such purpose for one year or more”. 

The Unification Church has been under increased scrutiny following the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by Yamagami Tetsuya, the son of a unification church member whose family had been put in financial disarray by the church’s demands for donations. Tetsuya targeted Abe over his ties with the Unification Church, including allowing them to solicit funds and membership and engage in political lobbying within Japan.

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