The Tokyo District Court fined the Unification Church sect for inadequate response to government requests, NHK television reported on March 26.
The investigation refers to ways of imposing its products on the followers of this religious organization. The marketing practice involves forcing people to make large donations to the organization.
Against the backdrop of the scandal that broke out in the summer of 2022, the country’s government decided to exercise its legal right and ask the Unification Church about its activities. Since then, the Ministry of Education and Culture has used this mechanism seven times, in which it sent more than 500 questions to the sect’s legal entity.
However, according to the ministry, representatives of the sect refused to answer more than 100 questions. For this reason, the government agency sent a request to the capital’s district court to impose a fine on this organization.
The ability to challenge officially registered religious organizations suggests the government’s intention to issue a decree to force their dissolution. However, representatives of the group insist that the questions asked by the ministry go beyond the requirements necessary to withdraw the corresponding status.
However, Chief Justice Kenya Suzuki noted that the group had reportedly broken the law on multiple occasions and therefore violated the rights of numerous victims. In this context, he ordered the director of the legal entity, Tomihiro Tanaka, to pay a fine of 100 thousand yen (61 thousand rubles).
This decision marks the first time a fine has been imposed in connection with the government’s right to investigate. The Unification Church is expected to appeal this decision to a higher authority in the near future.
Let us remind you that it is the Tokyo District Court that is considering the case of the forced liquidation of the religious organization “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification”; It is under this name that the sect officially operates in Japan.
The scandal surrounding the religious organization erupted after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022. The murderer, detained at the scene of the crime, then told investigators that with his act he was trying to take revenge on the Church of Unification and that, according to their information, Abe had significant weight in this organization.
According to the shooter, the sect’s representatives forced his mother to give them all the money and property, thus bankrupting the family.
According to popular belief, one of the sect’s marketing practices was the so-called “hereditary karma”, according to which followers were to acquire the opportunity to make life easier for their relatives for sums large enough to put people on the verge of bankruptcy. .
Source: Rossa Primavera
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