THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
October 24, 2022 at 16:51 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a Lower House Budget Committee session on Oct. 24 (Koichi Ueda)
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Oct. 24 said he wants to hold talks with Unification Church victims but repeated that a further investigation into the religious group’s ties to ruling party lawmakers was unnecessary.
“I want to directly hear from them (victims),” Kishida said at a Lower House Budget Committee meeting, responding to a question from Akira Nagatsuma, policy chief of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
A panel of the Cultural Affairs Agency has recommended legal revisions to help support victims of the Unification Church’s dubious “spiritual sales” and donation-collection activities.
Kishida said he wants to listen to the former church members and other victims to understand the extent of the damages they have suffered.
The panel has also recommended a government investigation into the church’s activities.
Although Kishida has instructed the education ministry to conduct that investigation, he has shown no intention of seeking an internal probe into pre-election “policy pacts” between Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and groups affiliated with the Unification Church.
At least one LDP lawmaker, Lower House member Hiroaki Saito, has acknowledged signing such a pact before a church-affiliated group supported his election campaign.
Yuichi Goto, a CDP member, asked Kishida on Oct. 24 about the number of LDP members who have signed such policy pacts.
“I know that there is one member who has self-reported about it,” Kishida said.
The prime minister was also repeatedly asked if the LDP would investigate whether other members had signed policy documents with church-affiliated groups.
Kishida said, “This is an issue that each member should check and react to.”
At an Oct. 20 Upper House Budget Committee meeting, Kishida said, “The party will sort it out and make an effort to find the truth” about the policy pacts.
The church is now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
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