Photo/Illutration A building housing the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, more commonly known as the Unification Church, in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A slew of questions has emerged about the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, including the approval of its name change from the Unification Church in 2015, when Shinzo Abe was prime minister.

It is believed that many people made substantial donations to the group after the name change without realizing it was nothing but the Unification Church under a new name.

The name change has allowed the damage by the group’s activities to continue or to expand, according to lawyers who have monitored “reikan shoho” (spiritual sales) activities and supported their victims.

It is essential for the government to provide details of the process in which the Agency for Cultural Affairs approved the group’s application for the name change and disclose documents to support the information.

At an Aug. 5 news conference, education minister Shinsuke Suematsu said the application was made in June 2015 and approved in August the same year as the documents were in order.

He said rejecting the application without any problem with the documents could be deemed illegal.

But Kihei Maekawa, a former top bureaucrat at the education ministry, takes exception to Suematsu’s explanation.

While serving as director of the Religious Affairs Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Maekawa was contacted by the group for advice over plans to change its name in 1997.

Maekawa, summoned to a hearing about the issue by opposition parties, gave the following explanation.

After debating the group’s plan, the division decided that the Unification Church should not be allowed to change its name as the nature of its activities had not changed.

Concerned that allowing the name change could lead to harmful consequences for society, the division took steps to block the group from filing the application. The group’s name remained unchanged.

The agency’s decision to accept the application in 2015 raises many questions.

What kind of discussions were held between the agency and the group after 1997? What were the agency’s views about the name change? Why did the group make the formal application in 2015?

In a written request in March 2015, the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, which had got wind of the group’s move, urged then education minister Hakubun Shimomura and other officials not to approve the name change.

How did the education ministry respond to the request and assess its own actions since 1997, when the Unification Church inquired about a possible name change?

The agency’s claim that the application in 2015 was accepted and approved because the documents were in order is far from convincing as long as these questions remain unanswered.

Suspicions remain about political intervention with the issue.

In 2015, Shimomura belonged to the Liberal Democratic Party faction that was led by Hiroyuki Hosoda, which is believed to have had ties with the Unification Church.

Shimomura was briefed by agency officials before the group’s application was accepted and again before the name change was authorized.

But Shimomura himself tweeted that the education minister is not usually involved in the process.

While denying issuing any instructions concerning the matter, Shimomura has said he “now feels responsibility” and that he “should have considered” the matter from the viewpoint of the situation surrounding the group.

Suematsu’s explanation, however, indicates that there was no room for the minister to “consider” the matter.

We cannot help but wonder what kind of actions Shimomura thinks he should have taken and what kind of “responsibility” he is feeling. We urge him to answer these questions at a news conference.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has behaved like a bystander on the issue. His irresponsible attitude seems to suggest that he is unaware of the public’s critical attention to the matter.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 9

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