Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida responds to a question at the Oct. 18 session of the Lower House Budget Committee. (Koichi Ueda)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to quickly push legislation to help victims of the Unification Church’s dubious sales and donation practices.

At the Oct. 18 Lower House Budget Committee session, Kishida said his administration would submit bills during the current Diet session to revise the Consumer Contract Law and make it easier for individuals to rescind contracts related to so-called spiritual sales of the church.

The opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) on Oct. 17 submitted their own legislation to provide support for victims of the church, which is now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The chairs of the Diet Affairs Committees of the two opposition parties met on Oct. 18 with Tsuyoshi Takagi, their counterpart in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and discussed cooperation on the legislation.

Takagi later told reporters the opposition legislation would be considered in a positive light by the LDP.

The same three lawmakers met again on Oct. 19 and agreed to set up a deliberative body that would also involve junior coalition partner Komeito.

The body will focus on helping victims of the church, including early passage of legislation. The first meeting of representatives of the four parties could be held as early as this week.

A panel under the Consumer Affairs Agency on Oct. 17 recommended the government investigate the financial practices of the Unification Church.

The panel’s report also called for legal revisions to ease the conditions under which victims of spiritual sales practices can cancel contracts or refuse to make large donations.

The legislation to revise the Consumer Contract Law is expected to include many of the panel’s recommendations.

The government was also moving toward writing up new legislation that would impose restrictions on donations to a religious corporation.

One possible provision would ban the continued solicitation of donations after the targeted individual indicates no desire to offer funds.

The Consumer Affairs Agency on Oct. 18 set up a special team of bureaucrats from various ministries to consider how to help victims.

The team was initially expected to come up with legislation for the ordinary Diet session scheduled to convene in January.

But the group will have to vastly accelerate its efforts to meet Kishida’s statement about passing legislation in the current session.

(This article was written by Takashi Narazaki and Mihoko Terada.)

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