Dem
47
GOP
53
This is an odd story, in many ways, but we think the ultimate outcome is a positive one, so we're going with it.
It has been a shade less than 3 years since former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was assassinated. The man responsible for that crime, Tetsuya Yamagami, said that he did it because Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were in bed with the Unification Church. And the Unification Church, as part of its approach, is in the habit of shaking down adherents for all of their assets. Yamagami feels that the Church is responsible for his family's financial ruin, and that Abe and the LDP are, in effect, accessories. Since the Unification Church (Full name: Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) is based in South Korea, it's beyond the reach of a Japanese national. Abe, by contrast, was not. Hence the assassination.
And now, the most unusual aspect of the story. The Japanese government has spent the years since Abe's death investigating Yamagami's claims, and concluded that he's 100% correct. His family really was ruined by the Unification Church. Abe and the LDP really were in bed with the Church; more than three-quarters of LDP members in the Japanese Parliament had received financial support from the Church. And so, while the assassination certainly was not legal, it was rational. Undoubtedly, Luigi Mangione smiled and nodded when he heard about this story.
Consequently, although this is not generally how this is supposed to work, the Japanese government got to work trying to solve the problem that Yamagami, in violent fashion, had highlighted. Prosecutors took the Unification Church to court, and this week they won. Assuming the decision stands up on appeal, the Unification Church will lose its tax-exempt status and will have to surrender its ill-gotten gains. And this is actually the third time Japan has implemented this penalty; the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult (sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subways) and Myokakuji group (gross fraud) got the same treatment.
We take the view that there's something very positive in making clear that if a religious group abuses its privileged legal, economic and cultural status, then it loses that status. If Japanese people still want to be members of the Unification Church, they are free to act on that. It's just that the government won't give the Church an assist anymore. Would 'twere certain other nations had that same policy (oh and, by the way, the Unification Church has also cultivated a relationship with every Republican president since 1968, except for Jerry Ford).
Have a good weekend, all! (Z)