Politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party showed mixed reactions to an Asahi Shimbun article about a 2013 meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the head of the Unification Church.

At least one LDP lawmaker said it could have implications for the Sept. 27 party presidential election.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sept. 17 dismissed the report that reaffirmed the relationship between Abe and the church, now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

“I have explained (the party’s) relationship with the Unification Church repeatedly in my answers to the Diet and other occasions,” Kishida told reporters at the prime minister’s office.

He walked away without taking another question.

The Asahi Shimbun report featured photos of Abe and other LDP leaders with the Unification Church President Eiji Tokuno and the heads of related organizations at LDP headquarters shortly before the 2013 Upper House election.

They apparently discussed support for LDP candidates in the election.

Education minister Masahito Moriyama said at a news conference on Sept. 17, “I saw the front page of this morning’s Asahi Shimbun, and all I can say is that I wondered if these things happened.”

Moriyama’s ministry has asked for a court order to dissolve the church, mainly over its shady fund-collection tactics. He was previously found to have received a letter of endorsement from a group affiliated with the church.

A former Cabinet member expressed the view that the Asahi article will have minimal impact on politics.

“That was totally Abe’s connection,” the former Cabinet member said.

Abe was shot and killed while campaigning in Nara Prefecture in July 2022.

The suspected gunman’s mother had donated the family’s fortune to the Unification Church, and the suspect told investigators he targeted Abe because of his close connections to the religious group.

A mid-level Upper House member said, “I thought the church issue had settled down, but now it will have an impact, including on the presidential election.”

Several sources told The Asahi Shimbun that the meeting between Abe and the church leaders was “to confirm the church’s support for an LDP candidate’s election.”

Some said Abe acted as the “distributor” of the church’s votes.

The LDP had previously said there is “no organizational relationship” between the party and the church.

Abe’s death put the spotlight on the church and its financial activities. It also prompted the LDP to instruct its lawmakers to conduct “self-inspections” on their relations with the organization.

However, the LDP did not look into Abe’s connections with the church.

Kishida repeatedly said in the Diet, “Now that he has passed, there are limits to what we can confirm.”

Some of the nine LDP presidential candidates gave responses about the Asahi article.

“If we have to investigate beyond the conditions and background at that time, I am not reluctant to investigate again,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Sept. 17.

Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi told reporters in Okinawa Prefecture: “The party has decided not to have any relationship with the church. We will do our utmost to thoroughly enforce it.”

Digital transformation minister Taro Kono said at a news conference, “We have also created a law (to provide relief to church victims), and we will deal with it firmly and strictly.”

But Kono did not mention the need for an investigation into Abe’s ties.

Sanae Takaichi, the economic security minister, would likely oppose such an investigation considering she had been close to Abe. Members of the Abe faction are expected to support her in the election.

Opposition parties are prepared to pursue the church issue in the next Lower House election.

Former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, a candidate in the Sept. 23 presidential election of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters, “Whether or not to conduct an investigation is a major condition for questioning the qualifications of the new (LDP) president and new prime minister.”

(This article was written by Shohei Sasagawa and Nozomi Matsui.)