‘Dangerous precedent’ for religious freedom: Critics assail Tokyo court’s Unification Church ruling

Prominent U.S. political figures and global religious freedom advocates assailed an extraordinary ruling from a Tokyo court Wednesday that upheld the dissolution of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, warning that the decision will erode Japan’s standing as a champion of religious liberty.

Reactions poured in from around the world in the hours after the ruling, which critics cast as an unprecedented legal step by the Japanese court. More important, they said, it could be the first domino to fall in an international crackdown on religious freedom.

“Unfortunately, this decision treads into territory that benefits opponents of a free society,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “Having worked with Japan extensively on security and human rights matters … I worry this precedent will harm Japan’s standing as a champion of freedom in Asia and potentially advance the interests of those working against our mutual dedication to human dignity and religious freedom.”

The Rev. Demian Dunkley, president of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification USA, fears the ruling could lead to similar legal initiatives against the church in other countries.

A long-standing global leader in the fight against communism, the Family Federation may now face emboldened political opponents who think they can use the legal system to undermine the organization and its work.

“Religious freedom is a fundamental human right, and it must include the ability of communities of faith to exist, gather and practice their beliefs peacefully,” Mr. Dunkley said. “This ruling sets a dangerous precedent that is already being copied in other countries.”

The Tokyo High Court’s decision ends a one-year appeal brought by the Family Federation, formerly known as the Unification Church, over claims that it solicited major donations, harmed the “public welfare” and violated loosely defined “social norms” in Japan.

The Family Federation was neither charged with nor convicted of any crime. The ruling marks the first time a Japanese religious dissolution order has been issued based solely on violations of the country’s Civil Code.

A liquidator will dissolve the organization’s assets and pay the alleged victims with the proceeds.

The State Department issued no immediate comment on the ruling.

Case against the Family Federation

In the ruling, Presiding Judge Motoko Miki indicated that extreme measures were needed to compel the church to make restitution to its alleged victims.

“The illegal acts committed by the followers of the church were extremely malicious in nature, and their consequences have been grave. The organization is not likely to voluntarily take effective countermeasures, leaving no choice but to dissolve it,” the judge said in the ruling, according to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.

The Rev. Masaichi Hori, the president of Family Federation Japan, called that ruling extreme.

“We have not committed any crime as a religious corporation. Our members are sincere believers who practice their faith peacefully and strive to contribute positively to society,” he said in a statement.

“We deeply regret this extreme decision imposed without criminal conviction. We will continue to uphold our beliefs lawfully and peacefully, confident that truth and justice will ultimately prevail,” he said.

The Family Federation could file a special appeal with the country’s Supreme Court. In the meantime, the liquidation of assets would proceed, Japanese media outlets reported.

The government’s chief Cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, said at a press conference that he had already instructed agencies to begin implementing measures to provide financial relief to alleged victims.

“We regard the ruling as meaning that the government’s position was accepted,” he said, according to English-language media accounts of his remarks.

The case against the church was brought by Tokyo’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Some 1,559 people, backed by a group of activist lawyers and with widespread media support, claim damages against the Family Federation.

They argue that worshippers were coerced into making major donations of some 20.4 billion yen, or $130 million, over 40 years and were victimized by “spiritual sales,” meaning they were pressured to purchase pricey talismans.

The most prominent beneficiary of returned donations is the convicted killer of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who brought the church into widespread disrepute in Japan through a high-profile affair mingling family finances, murder, religion and top-level politics.

Tetsuya Yamagami, then 41, was a disaffected former serviceman who used an improvised firearm to kill Abe during an outdoor campaign rally in 2022.

After his arrest, Yamagami said his mother had donated most of her assets to the Family Federation, which bankrupted his family.

Yamagami’s mother remains a church member. Other family members signed a statement absolving the church of any responsibility and confirming she received half her donations back.

Still, Yamagami said his motivation for the shooting was his simmering anger at Abe’s links to the group.

Abe had spoken at Family Federation events. Subsequent investigations found widespread ties between the Family Federation and Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party.

Those ties gained widespread publicity.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hailed from a more moderate wing of the party than the right-wing Abe, oversaw the delinking of the party and the Family Federation, which had assisted the LDP in electioneering.

In the heated social atmosphere after Abe’s murder, the church was compelled to deploy security guards at its main church, set in a quiet backstreet near Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district.

The LDP under Mr. Kishida was subsequently caught up in a slush fund scandal. With the party facing record-low ratings, Mr. Kishida stepped back from the leadership.

The LDP’s fortunes fell further under his successor, Shigeru Ishiba, who lost the party’s majority in both houses of the Diet.

The current head of the LDP is right-wing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

She reversed the party’s steep popularity decline by scoring Japan’s largest-ever lower-house election win in February.

A strong conservative, she is widely seen as Abe’s political heir.

The Family Federation addressed the connection between Wednesday’s court decision and his murder.

The court decision “can be seen as fulfilling the desire of the terrorist responsible for the shooting of the former prime minister: ‘to resent and strike at the Family Federation,’” the organization’s headquarters said in a statement.

“This judicial decision will not only incite new political terrorism but also undermine Japan’s credibility in the international community and will remain a stain on our nation’s history,” the Family Federation said.

Under fire on multiple fronts

Massimo Introvigne, an Italian lawyer and sociologist of religion, said the case against the church was driven by emotion, not by the law.

“The verdict is a legally unfounded act driven by public emotion after the Abe assassination rather than by any crime, relying on discredited ‘brainwashing’ theories that most scholars regard as pseudoscience,” he said.

“Dissolving a religious corporation without criminal convictions … represents a grave setback for religious freedom in Japan,” he said.

Believers say they cannot convert to a home church structure, given the small size of Japanese homes, and given widespread social prejudices that prevent them from renting public locations for services.

They say “spiritual sales” are no longer conducted and that they returned some donations made by family members of those claiming to be victims.

They further state that worshippers have been subjected to forcible “deprogramming” sessions that include renditions and de facto imprisonment.

The unfolding situation in Japan is one example of the targeting of the Unification Church, founded in 1954 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a charismatic Christian who grew up under the oppressive rule of communist North Korea.

The Rev. Moon fled to the South during the Korean War and established a tiny church.

It became active in Japan in the late 1950s and later expanded into a global spiritual movement seeking the unification of religions, backed by an affiliated commercial empire.

One of its properties is The Washington Times.

The movement is currently led by the Rev. Moon’s wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, after her husband’s passing in 2012.

The targeting of the Family Federation has spread beyond Japan.

Mrs. Han is in jail in South Korea after her September arrest on suspicion that she might destroy evidence related to a bribery case involving former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee.

Mrs. Han stands accused of illegally seeking to gain influence during the tenure of former conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment for insurrection after his botched attempt to institute martial law in December 2024.

Mrs. Han and her former chief secretary were indicted on charges of bribery, violating political funding laws, embezzling church funds and instructing the destruction of evidence.

They strongly deny the allegations. Mrs. Han’s trial is ongoing in Seoul Central District Court, where she appeared in a wheelchair at a hearing in December.