Photo/Illutration A building housing the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, better known as the Unification Church (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

More than 40 percent of newly appointed senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries have acknowledged past ties with the Unification Church, formerly known as the World Peace and Unification Family Federation, or its related organizations.

The appointments followed the Sept. 13 reshuffle of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet.

Twenty-six out of 54 lawmakers admitted to having some connection with scandal-plagued group through surveys conducted by The Asahi Shimbun last year and in-house screenings by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. 

Among the 26 senior vice ministers, 11 admitted to having had some tie in the past with the Unification Church, and among the 28 parliamentary secretaries, 15 said the same. Some of the politicians also received donations or paid to attend functions hosted by the church or related groups.

One of the individuals is Lower House member Shuhei Aoyama, newly appointed senior vice minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, responsible for handling issues related to the Unification Church.

He admitted to having had interactions with related organizations during the party’s screenings last year following the July 2022 slaying of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara city.

The gunman blamed his mother’s huge donations to the Unification Church for his lousy childhood and said he targeted Abe because of the veteran politician’s longstanding ties with the church, which has long been regarded as a social menace. The revelations sparked a government investigation into the church that is expected to result in the government requesting a court order to disband the organization.

The Asahi Shimbun conducted the survey from August to September last year, asking all lawmakers about their connections with the Unification Church. In September the same year, the LDP also conducted screenings of its members’ relationship with the church and its affiliated groups, and publicly disclosed the results.

The Asahi Shimbun also contacted newly elected lawmakers this past January about their connections with the Unification Church.

Among the newly appointed ministers on Sept. 13, four individuals, admitted to having had some connection with the Unification Church. They included Koichi Hagiuda, who retained his position as chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council.

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