THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
October 17, 2022 at 17:53 JST
Members of a panel under the Consumer Affairs Agency hold an online meeting on Oct. 4 regarding the Unification Church. (Noriyuki Kaneta)
A consumer affairs panel not only recommended a government investigation into the Unification Church, but it also called for new regulations to protect followers of religious groups from shady donation-collection practices.
A report released on Oct. 17 by the expert panel of the Consumer Affairs Agency said legal requirements should be eased to allow consumers to cancel contracts that they signed with religious organizations under “unjust solicitation.”
The panelists said the statue of the right to cancel such contracts should be extended beyond the current five years because many brainwashed victims require a great deal of time to become “deprogrammed” and recognize the damage they have suffered.
The panel also recommended a rule to ban religious organizations from collecting donations if they are found to have pressured individuals to provide money when they cannot make rational decisions.
Enactment of legislation to punish violators was also proposed.
The Unification Church is known for its dubious sales and donation-collection practices.
The release of the panel’s report coincided with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s instructions for the education ministry to investigate the Unification Church under the Religious Corporations Law.
Religious corporations fall under the jurisdiction of the Cultural Affairs Agency, which is part of the education ministry.
The church, now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, could lose its status as a religious corporation and be ordered to disband.
The panel noted that court rulings have piled up in civil lawsuits that have recognized the church’s organizational responsibility for dubious financial activities. Its shady practices constitute a reason for seeking a court order to disband the church, the panelists said.
According to the panel’s report, a government agency overseeing religious corporations “needs to exercise its authority to ask for reports from and question” the Unification Church under the law.
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