Photo/Illutration A copy of a document used at one of the study sessions aimed at local assembly members regarding support for family education (The Asahi Shimbun)

Organizations linked to the Unification Church arranged study sessions aimed at local assembly members in a stealthy push for ordinances to promote the religious group’s “family education” idea, documents showed.

The study sessions were first held in 2015. About 100 local assembly members have participated in each of the six sessions held so far.

Documents from those sessions have never used the name of the Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. In addition, the names of the church-related organizations were never prominently mentioned.

Many participants said they never knew that organizations linked to the Unification Church were involved in organizing the sessions.

The Unification Church has long sought a law that obliges families to take charge of home education.

Ten prefectural and six municipal assemblies around Japan have adopted ordinances calling on local governments to provide support to such family education efforts.

But no bill has ever been submitted to the Diet because of sharp criticism that such a measure would give government authorities too much power in what should be the private affairs of families.

The Unification Church issued a statement denying any organizational involvement in the study sessions, adding that it would not interfere in the political activities of individual members.

According to documents obtained by The Asahi Shimbun, a number of local assembly members were listed as being the prime organizers of the study sessions. Some of those members were at one time members of the Unification Church.

High-ranking officials of church-related organizations have lectured at the sessions, while others have encouraged local assembly members to join the list of organizers.

The first session in 2015 was held at a Tokyo hotel, while the second one was at a Tokyo ward government facility.

But from the third session in 2018, the events have been held at Diet members’ conference halls in Tokyo. The three sessions since 2020 have been held online because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Executives of the Federation for World Peace, an organization affiliated with the Unification Church, served as lecturers in the first two study sessions.

From the third session, prefectural assembly members from Kumamoto, Ibaraki and Fukui explained their efforts to pass ordinances calling for government support of family education.

During the online sessions from 2020, local assembly members in Wakayama and Toyama prefectures took part from local facilities of organizations tied to the Unification Church.

Some participants used public funds to cover their participation costs. They returned the money to the local governments after assembly secretariats certified that the events were linked with the Unification Church.

A check of the six study session programs turned up the names of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who served as lecturers. Two lawmakers said they reported their participation to the LDP’s internal investigation last year into party members’ ties with the Unification Church.

Four individuals who helped to organize some of the early sessions have since been elected to the Diet.

One person who took part as a member of the Fukui prefectural assembly subsequently led a local movement to pass an ordinance in support of family education.

A Shizuoka prefectural assembly member who was a follower of the Unification Church until September 2022 and helped organize some of the sessions said: “Individuals from the church and affiliated organizations were involved in putting on the study sessions.

“But many local assembly members also helped out because there would not have been a spread of the movement if only individuals with ties to the church were involved.”

However, an official with church-affiliated organizations issued a statement that said the study sessions were organized by local assembly members. The official also declined to divulge the contents of the sessions on grounds the events were private affairs.

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