Support for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government in Japan has dropped to its lowest level since his election amid a quest to investigate lawmakers suspected of entertaining “connections” to the Unification Church.
Kishida’s support has fallen to 36% from 52% a month ago, according to a survey. As much as 87% of the survey participants said the Unification Church was either an “extreme problem” or “somewhat a problem” for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
It’s easy to figure out why. The Unification Church’s name has been essentially rendered synonymous with a religious scam following an unrelenting media campaign.
Thousands of Unification Church followers rallied in the South Korean capital Seoul last week protesting the negative Japanese media coverage of their religion. The protesters, mostly Japanese believers who moved to South Korea, say the Japanese media, in its improbable attempt to rationalize Shinzo Abe’s assassination, has unduly targeted their church.
Church members fear that the social persecution, on top of family pressure, will force them to recant their faith.
However, the social pressure could have nothing to do with the actual belief as the church in question is a sort of esoteric cult whose main surreptitious undertaking is to convince their faithful into donating all their savings to the organization.
“The mere suspicion of being in the wrong is already a sentence in East Asian countries”
What is important, particularly in East Asian culture, is the shame family members feel on being seen as relatives of someone who is part of a group whose public image is forever tarnished. That is what matters.
The mere suspicion of being in the wrong is already a sentence in East Asian countries. The substance of the claim doesn’t matter when evaluating reputation.