Tokyo—Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered a government probe into the Unification Church on Monday, after the assassination of former premier Shinzo Abe renewed scrutiny of the sect.
The church has been in the spotlight because the man accused of killing Abe was reportedly motivated by resentment against the group, which has been accused of pressuring adherents to make hefty donations and blamed for child neglect among members.
Officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the organisation was founded in Korea by Sun Myung Moon and its members are sometimes called “Moonies”.
The church has denied wrongdoing, but a parade of former members have gone public with criticism of its practices, and revelations about its links with top politicians have helped tank Kishida’s approval ratings.
Kishida told parliament on Monday that there were “many victims” of the church and its related groups who had found themselves in poverty or facing a family breakdown.
“Efforts to help them are still insufficient,” he said, so “the government will exercise its right to probe the church, based on the Religious Corporations Act”.
The government also wants to implement other measures, such as strengthening “initiatives to prevent child abuse and help the offspring of religious followers with their education and employment”, Kishida said.
Local media said the probe would examine whether the church had harmed public welfare or committed acts at odds with its status as a religious group.
The investigation could lead to a dissolution order, which would see the church lose its status as a tax-exempt religious organization, though it could continue to operate.
Only two religious groups in Japan have ever received such an order, reports said, one of which was the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo metro.
The other is a group that defrauded members.
But the government is reportedly hesitant about the possibility of issuing the Unification Church such an order due to religious freedom concerns.
Meanwhile, a Japanese minister visited on Monday a controversial shrine that honours war dead but is seen as a symbol of past militarism, while the prime minister sent a ritual offering.
The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo honors 2.5 million mostly Japanese war dead who perished since the late 19th century and enshrines convicted war criminals.
Trips to the shrine by government officials have angered countries that suffered Japanese military atrocities, particularly China and South Korea.
A shrine spokeswoman said Sanae Takaichi, the minister in charge of economic security, visited the shrine Monday during the autumn festival.
Trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura went to the shrine on Friday before the festival began.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, however, has stayed away, instead sending a “masakaki” tree offering.
No Japanese prime minister has visited the shrine since 2013 when a trip by then-premier Shinzo Abe sparked fury in Beijing and Seoul and a rare diplomatic rebuke from close ally the United States.