Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered a government probe into the Unifi-cation Church on October 17, after the assa-ssination of former premier Shinzo Abe re-newed scrutiny of the sect.
The church has been in the spotlight because the man accused of killing Abe was reportedly motivated by resentment against the group, which has been accused of pre-ssuring adherents to make hefty donations and blamed for child neglect among mem-bers.
Officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the organi-zation was founded in Korea by Sun Myung Moon and its members are sometimes called “Moonies.”
The church has denied wrongdoing, but a parade of former members have gone public with criticism of its practices, and revelations about its links with top politicians have help-ed tank Kishida’s approval ratings.
Kishida told parliament on Monday that there were “many victims” of the church and its related groups who had found them-selves in poverty or facing family breakdown.
“Efforts to help them are still insuffi-cient,” he said, so “the government will ex-ercise its right to probe the church, based on the Religious Corporations Act.”
The government also wants to implement other measures, such as strengthening “ini-tiatives to prevent child abuse and help the offspring of religious followers with their education and employment,” Kishida said.