Photo/Illutration The team of lawyers supporting victims of the Unification Church speaks to the media on March 25. (Usen To)

The dissolution order against the Unification Church may be seen as a win for its victims, but it may not lead to adequate compensation to those whose lives were turned upside by the organization.

That is because the current legal system actually hinders the process of providing relief to victims from the assets of a dissolved group, lawyers supporting the victims said.

“Legal provisions are extremely vague and insufficient,” the team of lawyers said in a statement released on March 25, after the Tokyo District Court issued the dissolution order.

The lawyers called for passage of new legislation to help the victims.

After the team was formed in 2022, it demanded collective bargaining from the church, which is now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Until November 2024, 194 former church members or family members filed lawsuits seeking a total of about 5.8 billion yen ($39 million) in compensation for dodgy sales schemes and huge donations to the church.

But relief has been slow in coming, and many cases have moved toward court mediation.

If the dissolution order against the church is finalized, a court will assign a liquidator to take over church assets.

The liquidator would likely handle compensation to victims by looking into the damage they suffered and the assets held by the church.

The Tokyo District Court ruling on March 25 found the church had an annual average income of about 40.9 billion yen between fiscal 2015 and 2022. As of the end of fiscal 2022, the church’s net assets came to about 118.1 billion yen.

But the Religious Corporation Law has only abstract wording about what the liquidator can do.

In February, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) released a document saying the government should pass legislation regarding what should be allowed if a religious corporation is dissolved.

The JFBA called for selecting several liquidators, rather than just the one under current law, and obligating church executives to cooperate with any investigation and disclose important church assets.

The proposed process would be similar to the way bankruptcy administrators proceed with bankruptcy cases.

When the Diet passed a bill in December 2023 to provide relief to church victims, it did not include wording for a comprehensive securing of church assets, and critics have said the church has moved assets.

The JFBA has also called for relaxing the current provision that allows victims to seek legal help only until the dissolution order against the church is finalized.

The church opposed the JFBA document, saying it violates freedom of religion.

(This article was written by Senior Staff Writer Ryuichi Kitano and Yoichiro Kodera.)

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