The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has announced its commitment to severing ties with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, formerly known as the Unification Church. This comes in response to a questionnaire from the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, which was sent to all eight major political parties. The purpose of the survey was to provide voters with information ahead of the upcoming House of Representatives election on October 27.
In their responses, the LDP stated that they have revised their governance code after examining their members’ relationship with the religious organization. They emphasized that they will strictly adhere to this code in all political activities, as part of their policy of having no association with the former Unification Church.
Komeito, a ruling coalition partner, expressed its intention to strengthen support for victims based on a special measures law enacted last year. They also emphasized that any involvement with groups deemed socially problematic should be terminated.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan called for the establishment of an independent third-party organization to investigate any potential connections between politicians or political parties and the former Unification Church. They argued that suspicions still exist regarding whether policy decisions were influenced by this religious group.
The Japan Innovation Party stated its intention to seek necessary amendments to existing laws in order to prevent concealment or dispersal of assets if a court order is issued for dissolving the group at the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Other parties also shared their perspectives on addressing issues related to the former Unification Church. The Japanese Communist Party aims to establish a system supervised by family courts that would allow followers’ donations to be canceled among other measures. The Democratic Party for People pledged efforts towards resolving neglected problems associated with this religious group through politics. The Social Democratic Party called for an independent investigative committee due to what they perceive as significant impact on national politics resulting from collusion between LDP and former Unification Church. Lastly, Reiwa Shinsengumi party demanded an investigation into how exactly this religious group has influenced government led by LDP through means such as election support.
For more details about each party’s response, please refer directly to National Network’s website where you can find full text in Japanese.