A former staff member at a ruling Liberal Democratic Party candidate’s office detailed how the former Unification Church, now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, gave its organized support to the candidate.

The former staffer of the Fukuoka office of Upper House lawmaker Tsuneo Kitamura consented to an interview with The Asahi Shimbun after he read the Asahi's coverage of the church's ties to the LDP.

The man detailed how a group connected to the Unification Church apparently provided a staff member to work in his office and how Kitamura gave speeches at its affiliated churches during an election campaign.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that in 2013, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with the leaders of the Unification Church and its related religious groups at the party’s headquarters.

At the meeting, it was agreed that the religious groups would support the LDP candidates in the proportional representation section of the Upper House election.

The subsequent efforts that the religious groups made in supporting the LDP's elections has come to light from the man’s story.

The 43-year-old man who lives in Fukuoka was working in the Fukuoka office of Kitamura when he ran in the Upper House election for the first time in 2013.

The man presented numerous documents from the office during the interview.

The man said he had been participating in conservative political movements since he was a student.

He quit his job at the end of April 2013 and started working at Kitamura’s office from June of the same year, through an introduction from his old friend, who was related to a Diet member's office.

At that time, the office members were thinking that “it is difficult for (Kitamura) to be elected because he is little known.”

'FEDERATION FOR WORLD PEACE SUPPORTS US'

In mid-June 2013, a senior staff member at the office said, “The Federation for World Peace will support us in the election,” to other staff members, soon after he returned from a business trip to Tokyo.

The man became worried if it was acceptable to agree to the support, because he knew that the religious group was connected with the Unification Church through his experiences with political movements.

When Kitamura gave a speech in front of Hakata Station during the campaign period of the Upper House election, Kitamura’s campaign schedule of the day was handed over to staff members of the office.

The man still has the document, which shows Kitamura would give a speech at a Kurume church from 7:30 p.m. and a Fukuoka church from 9 p.m.

Those churches belonged to the Unification Church

As the election neared its end, he learned that there was a staff member in the office who had been dispatched by the Federation for World Peace.

The man had been wondering why the woman spoke in standard Japanese at the Fukuoka office where people usually speak in the Fukuoka dialect.

There was a name card showing that she has a title at the Federation for World Peace among the documents at the office, and also a fax sent from the Fukuoka church of the Unification Church.

The man kept calling the phone numbers on a list prepared at the office.

On the list, there were a prefectural branch of the Federation for World Peace and a prefectural branch of International Federation for Victory over Communism, both friendship organizations of the Unification Church.

The man was mainly engaged in creating pamphlets and leaflets in addition to making phone calls by the day before election day, and Kitamura was elected for the first time in the election on the next day. 

He has been feeling doubts about Kitamura being elected as a lawmaker and responded to the interview request at this time.

When he was shown photos of the meeting between then Prime Minister Abe and the leaders of the Unification Church and its related groups, he thought, “It was indeed organized support, as I suspected.”

KITAMURA REPORTED SUPPORT TO LDP

In 2013, Abe met with the leaders of Unification Church and its related religious groups at the headquarters of the LDP. At the meeting, they agreed to support Kitamura in the proportional representation election of the Upper House.

The Asahi Shimbun reported on the agreement along with photos.

Kitamura garnered support from the related religious groups of the Unification Church in the 2013 and 2019 Upper House elections, and reported the support to the party, according to the LDP’s document obtained by The Asahi Shimbun.

The document was titled “List of support organizations and companies for official candidates in the proportional representation election,” and it is highly likely that the support from the related religious groups was widely shared inside the party.

When Asahi reporters asked Kitamura what kind of support he accepted from the religious groups in the 2013 and 2019 elections, the office of Kitamura responded in a written statement, saying, “There have been no changes to what we have answered at a news conference and through other means.”

Kitamura announced that he had received voluntary support from International Federation for Victory over Communism in August 2022 following the revelation of his connections to the Unification Church.