Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida responds to a question at the Oct. 20 Upper House Budget Committee. (Koichi Ueda)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Oct. 20 stopped short of promising a Liberal Democratic Party investigation into members who signed pre-election “policy pacts” with groups affiliated with the Unification Church.

Instead, Kishida appears intent on calling on party lawmakers to investigate themselves so that he can better “grasp” their connections with the Unification Church.

“It will be important for (individual lawmakers) to investigate, report and explain whatever problems may arise” from the signing of policy pacts, Kishida said on Oct. 20 at the Upper House Budget Committee.

He also repeated that any LDP contact with the church or its organizations during elections had no effect on the party’s later policy decisions.

Two organizations with links to the Unification Church have asked LDP lawmakers to sign policy pacts in return for support in national elections.

Hideyuki Teshigawara, a top official of the Unification Church, said at an Oct. 20 news conference that he was aware of such policy pacts.

The LDP conducted an earlier survey about ties between its members and the church. But the results, released in September, made no mention of the policy pacts.

On Oct. 20, Lower House member Hiroaki Saito became the first LDP lawmaker to admit to signing a policy pact.

“I was presented with the document as a sort of precondition for having (church members) provide support during the campaign” for the 2021 Lower House election, he told The Asahi Shimbun.

Although Saito said it was only natural for a support group to confirm the policy stances of the candidate, he admitted that he should not have signed the document, given the many problems linked to the church, including its “spiritual sales” and calls for large donations from members.

Kishida has come under heavy public criticism over his handling of the ties between his party’s lawmakers and the Unification Church, which is now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Although some LDP lawmakers said the latest revelation would be another major blow for the party, others were brushing off any possible negative effects.

“It would have been a problem if the pact asked the lawmaker to ignore dubious sales practices, but signing the policy pact is not an illegal act,” one lawmaker said. “There is absolutely no need for an investigation.”

Another lawmaker parroted the prime minister, saying the individuals who signed the document should explain why they did so.

(Kohei Morioka contributed to this article.)

Related News