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Japan draws up draft rules for Unification Church probe
Date: 2022-11-08 Source: japantimes

The headquarters of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in Tokyo | KYODO 

Nov 7, 2022

The Cultural Affairs Agency has drafted rules on exercising the right to ask questions in a proposed investigation into the Unification Church, sources said Monday.

The draft, to be presented to an expert panel on the issue at a meeting Tuesday, lays out criteria for exercising the questioning right under the religious corporation law.

The law stipulates that the government can question religious organizations if there are suspicions that they have committed illegal acts found to clearly damage public welfare or acts that deviate significantly from their stated purposes. The law, however, lacks detailed criteria for exercising the questioning right.

The draft says that the government can exercise the right for religious groups when people linked to the groups have committed law violations repeatedly or when grave damage has been inflicted, based on judgments by public organizations, according to the sources. The government has never exercised the right before.

Once the panel sets the rules, the government will question the controversial group, officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, within this year after presenting a list of questions to the Religious Juridical Persons Council.

The group, along with its practices of selling goods to members at high prices and collecting massive donations, came under the spotlight after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot to death in July by a man motivated by Abe’s alleged links with the group.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/11/07/national/unification-church-probe-rules/