When former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot earlier this year, the incident shone a spotlight on the links his fellow Liberal Democratic Party members had with the controversial Unification Church. Kanako Takahara joins this week’s Deep Dive to discuss what’s behind a new bill regulating faith-driven donations, investigations into the church and whether these actions will be enough to save Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s job.

Hosted by Shaun McKenna and produced by Dave Cortez.

On this episode:

Kanako Takahara: Articles | Twitter

Read more/Watch more:

Get in touch:

Send us feedback at [email protected]. Support the show by rating, reviewing and sharing the episode with a friend if you’ve enjoyed it. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

Transcript: 

Note: Deep Dive is made to be listened to, and we recommend this transcript be used as an accompaniment to the episode. This transcript has been generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcription, and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the episode.

Shaun McKenna 00:09

Hello and welcome to Deep Dive from The Japan Times, I’m Shaun McKenna. 

It’s that time of year when media outlets reflect on and rank their biggest stories. And, without a doubt, one contender for the biggest story of 2022 is the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot and killed in Nara on July 8. What unfolded after his death has wound up becoming another big story — a scandal involving the highly influential Unification Church that has ensnared several of current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet ministers and other members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. 

Today, I’ll talk to Japan Times news chief Kanako Takahara about what is going on with the church, where the alleged assassin is now and what Kishida is trying to do to save his job. 

Shaun McKenna  01:02  

Kanako Takahara, thanks for coming back to Deep Dive.

Kanako Takahara  01:05  

Thanks for having me.

Shaun McKenna  01:07  

Kanako, indulge me in this setup for a second. Last week, the publisher Jiyu Kokumin-sha released its list of top Japanese buzzwords for the year — and these are the words that pop up a lot in conversation in the media and so on. The winner was “Murakami-sama,” the nickname fans have given baseball player Munetaka Murakami, which is a portmanteau of his name and “kami-sama,” the word for “god.”

News clip  01:31  

Shaun McKenna  01:44  

Among the top 10 words of the year though, was “shūkyō nisei,” can you explain to us what that means?

Kanako Takahara  01:52  

So “shūkyō nisei” literally means “religion, second generation.” So they are the children of parents who are devout followers of a religious group. So that means the child is born into that religion from the start and hasn't made a conscious decision to join.

Shaun McKenna  02:11  

Right, OK. So the most notorious example of shūkyō nisei this year was Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested in July for the murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. We'll talk about him a little more in a bit. But since the assassination, though, we've started hearing more stories about shūkyō nisei and what they've been through and, from what I've read, they're pretty heartbreaking.

Kanako Takahara  02:33  

So The Japan Times runs translated stories from various local news outlets and there was one from the Chugoku Shimbun that described the first-person account of poverty, for instance, mental abuse and discrimination. For instance, if the parents have been making donations on a regular basis, that means the household or the family doesn't have a lot of money and that leads to poverty for that household and the child would not have a lot of money, or they've been bullied because of the poverty, for instance. And a lot of people went through a traumatizing experience because of that. For instance, when they grow up, they do part-time jobs. And even if they get that income from that part-time job, they are forced to provide that for donations for that religious group. And they are constantly in poverty. And that kind of case made headlines over the course of the few months after the assassination.

Shaun McKenna  03:36  

Um, I want to point out that a lot of these stories have centered around the Unification Church, which is now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification — and has denied any wrongdoing — some people overseas might know its members as “the Moonies,” from its founder Sun Myung Moon. But the term shūkyō nisei doesn't strictly refer to this organization, is that correct?

Kanako Takahara  03:58  

That's correct, it can be applied to any religious organization. But it became known, like in the buzzwords, because of this Unification Church incident.

Shaun McKenna  04:10  

Right, OK. Yeah, some of the most striking testimonies are coming from the children who were born into Unification Church families. One of the ones I found extremely moving was that of a woman who is being referred to as Sayuri Ogawa, which is a pseudonym. She spoke to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in October about her experience growing up as a child of the church.

Clip from Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan 04:31  

Kanako Takahara  04:57  

Yes, that was very controversial during the press conference, or parents who are still devoted followers of the Unification Church sent a fax to the organization saying that her daughter is mentally unstable and that what she's saying is a lie. So the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan received that fax during the press conference, and she was reading it, or she was seeing it during the press conference. And it was really obvious that she was very upset about that. So that was when she was talking about the poverty during her childhood, and that her part-time job income has been forced to … give it to the organization as a donation. So, I think that a lot of the reporters who were there or listening in, felt that it was the organization's effort to try to discredit her.

Shaun McKenna  05:54

Yeah, it was really hard to watch. I even caught myself tearing up a bit as Ogawa was trying to maintain her composure, listening to these accusations from her parents. How is the Japanese public reacting to stories like these?

Kanako Takahara  06:04  

I think a lot of people knew about the Unification Church from decades ago, but the traumatized experience about the second generation, shūkyō nisei, a lot of that was new to the people. So there is a lot of sympathy towards the shūkyō nisei, who didn't have a lot of choice in growing up and going another way, for instance.

Shaun McKenna  06:33  

This is where things get a bit tricky, because while the stories of these children have evoked sympathy and tears from the public, the most famous one among them might be 42-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, the man who shot Shinzo Abe.

News clip 06:48

Shaun McKenna  06:59  

Kanako, who is Tetsuya Yamagami?

Kanako Takahara  07:02  

So, Tetsuya Yamagami is the person who shot Shinzo Abe during the election campaigning for the July Upper House election, and that was very shocking. There were, you know, videos of him shooting Abe, while there was a crowd of people listening.

Shaun McKenna  07:21 

So Abe was giving a speech for one of these candidates for the election. Right? Was he was it his own?

Kanako Takahara  07:28  

No, he was backing a certain candidate, in Nara. He was stumping for that candidate. 

Shaun McKenna  07:35  

OK, and it’s very common for Japanese politicians to go out in public, maybe in front of a train station to give these kinds of speeches. 

Kanako Takahara 07:41

Right, correct, and he was doing just that. 

Shaun McKenna 07:44

  1. Do you remember where you were when you heard about Abe being shot?

Kanako Takahara  07:48  

I was working remotely from home doing editing, I think. And then we heard this breaking news from NHK. And then we were like, “What?” We're scrambling to do a breaking news story. And that was, it was nonstop from there, you know, updating the story until the print deadline and over, and we were scrambling — What's really happening? — and Shinzo Abe was rushed to the hospital — Is he alright? Is he dead? What's the status?  — And we were hearing a lot of lawmakers rushing to the hospital as well, and the wife, Akie, also rushed to the hospital. And then, in the evening, he was pronounced dead. And it was really shocking that this actually could happen in Japan.

Shaun McKenna  08:41  

So even though there's video of Yamagami committing this act, we still should be saying “allegedly” just because the trial hasn't occurred yet, is that correct? 

Kanako Takahara 08:50

Yes, that's right. 

Shaun McKenna 08:51

OK, so why did Yamagami allegedly go after Abe?

Kanako Takahara  08:56  

So according to an investigation, Yamagami had a grudge against the Unification Church. And his mother was a devout follower — or still is. And that he went through poverty, because of the donation that the mother did for the Unification Church or allegedly. According to the uncle, his mother offered ¥100 million in donations to the Unification Church and that's why the family was in financial ruin.

Shaun McKenna  09:27

Right, and just to note for listeners, ¥100 million is around $720,000, U.S. dollars, yeah?

Kanako Takahara  09:33

Correct. And so he had a grudge against the Unification Church because that totally ruined his family's life and his life as well. So he first initially wanted to go after the Unification Church itself, but because it's based in South Korea, he couldn't really travel there because of the pandemic. And so he looked up and saw that Abe has a strong connection with the Unification Church, and he attacked Abe because of his ties with the Unification Church.

Shaun McKenna  10:05

Right, so Abe gave a speech to the church at one point, is that correct?

Kanako Takahara 10:00

Yes, that's correct. 

Shaun McKenna 10:12

And his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, is believed to have helped the South Korean church kind of get a foothold here.

Kanako Takahara  10:18  

Yes, that's right. So there has been a generation of ties between Abe’s family and the Unification Church, and seeing that Yamagami thought that he should target Abe. And it sounds a little bit crazy, but that's what his motive was, according to the investigators.

Shaun McKenna  10:41 

OK, where is Yamagami now?

Kanako Takahara  10:43  

He is currently detained at an Osaka detention center and he's currently under psychological evaluation for the police to figure out, or the prosecutors to figure out if he was really sane when he committed the crime.

Shaun McKenna  11:57

OK, and originally his evaluation was to be concluded by the end of November, but it seems now it's going to be concluded on Jan. 10. 

Kanako Takahara 11:06

That's correct. 

Shaun McKenna 11:07

When is he likely to go on trial?

Kanako Takahara  11:09  

That's an open question, I think. There could be a trial maybe late next year? But currently, he's still under investigation and investigators would want to make sure that they have a solid case before going to the trial.

Shaun McKenna  11:28

Right. OK. What struck me about the assassination is — and correct me if I'm wrong — people seem to move on from it much quicker than I expected. Like, sure there was the state funeral for Abe that brought it back into the spotlight, but it doesn't feel like it's a lingering issue in the public consciousness?

Kanako Takahara  11:47

Well that's probably because there was a video of Abe’s assassination, and that it was clear that he shot Abe, and according to the investigation his motive was also … seemed to be clear. So there's no vagueness of why the crime has happened. And so I feel like there has been a lot of sympathy toward Yamagami. When his, you know, childhood was revealed, the investigations show that he had a very traumatized experience. Allegedly, he tried to commit suicide, because of his, you know, history. So a lot of the public has been sympathizing towards it — though what he allegedly did was wrong, I think the anger or any emotions involved were simply transferred to the issues involving the Unification Church.

Shaun McKenna  13:00 

In October of last year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida became Japan's 100th Prime Minister, and he's been victorious in two different elections. At one point he had an approval rating of more than 60%. But after the Abe assassination, his approval rating started to nosedive. Why is that?

Kanako Takahara  13:17 

So, Kishida’s ratings have been affected by a lot of things. First, that could be inflation, because of the war on Ukraine. And there are people who were angry about the state funeral for Abe, and how the money was used and the decision-making process of that. But a large portion was because of his handling of the Unification Church problems and the ties that the Unification Church had with the LDP, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. And the public seems to think that Kishida hasn't done enough to investigate the ties between the church and the LDP, which was getting a bad reputation due to the stories from these shūkyō nisei, and LDP politicians.

Shaun McKenna  13:57

Right. So actually, Kishida decided to handle this internally. Is that correct? So they had a survey of the politicians LDP politicians in September. What were the results of that survey?

Kanako Takahara  14:09

So the immediate results show that 179 members out of 379 have some kind of dealings with the church.

Shaun McKenna  14:18  

Wow, that’s almost half. When you say dealings, though, what do you mean by that? 

Kanako Takahara  14:24 

So a lot of like, dealings or ties, were about politicians giving out speeches in gatherings or getting interviews from publications from the Unification Church or affiliated organizations. So, basically, a lot of them were superficial, so it's not like deep ties, but in some cases there were politicians who have received election campaigning support.

Shaun McKenna  14:51  

Kind of in the form of, like, volunteers?  

Kanako Takahara  14:53  

Volunteers, they would help volunteering with the election campaigning. Like, for instance, like, calling for support to voters or handing out, like, leaflets during gatherings, that kind of thing. But that's not all. After the survey came out, the opposition in Japanese media discovered that some politicians in Kishida’s Cabinet have links to the Unification Church, but they were never revealed. This includes Daisuke Yamagiwa, who was the economic revitalization minister, and he actually met with the church's founder’s widow in 2018. But he wasn't upfront about that, he didn't really come out and say he met her because he claimed that he wasn't certain about the facts. Those kinds of revelations have hurt Kishida’s approval rating even more.

Shaun McKenna  15:47  

So just to be clear here has Fumio Kishida been shown to have any dealings with the church himself? 

Kanako Takahara 15:53

He hasn't, no. 

Shaun McKenna 15:55

OK, but he seems to be taking the brunt of this public disapproval.

Kanako Takahara  15:59  

Right. So it's his Cabinet members or LDP politicians who've been criticized for this. But he's the party leader, and he's the prime minister of his Cabinet, right.

News clip 16:12

Shaun McKenna  16:27  

So what is his government doing about that now? Let's unravel this kind of slew of actions that have happened in the past two months regarding the church and religious outfits more broadly.

Kanako Takahara  16:39  

So they wanted to provide relief or support to the victims of the religious organization. First, this week, the government hopes to pass a bill that will ban the use of fear to solicit donations.

Shaun McKenna  16:51

OK, can you give us an example of what that tactic might look like?

Kanako Takahara  17:55  

So for example, if the religious organization tells a follower, evil spirits are preventing disease from being cured if they don't offer donations.

Shaun McKenna  17:08  

I keep hearing the term spiritual sales with regard to this. Is that the same thing?

Kanako Takahara  17:13 

Yes, that's for spiritual sales for purchasing items. For instance, like, a vase. If you buy this particular item, it'll cure you or evil spirits will go away. And they are offered at a very excessively high price like millions of yen. So the consumer related bill, the revision of it, is about a contract because it's purchased. It's a contract between the buyer and the seller. So that could be covered in existing bill it could just be revised, because there's a certain framework for that, but there's no law pertaining to donations, that really very separate thing. So they need to come up with a new set of bill just for restricting donations.

Shaun McKenna  18:01  

OK, so this bill is being debated right now. And the government's legislative session ends on Saturday, Dec. 10. I know Kishida wants to get it passed this week. What else is in the bill?

Kanako Takahara  18:12  

Well, organizations need to make it clear who is requesting the donation and what the money is used for. If an organization doesn't comply with the bill, its members could be faced with a ¥1 million yen fine, that's almost $7,500 — or face a year in prison. Donors can cancel their donations, and the bill sets out timelines for this. But the spouses and children can also apply for partial refunds of the donations made.

Shaun McKenna  18:43  

OK, so on that last point, so for example, Sayuri Ogawa, who we mentioned earlier, she could maybe apply to get some of the money back of the funding that was used by her parents to donate. What is the bill lacking?

Kanako Takahara  19:01  

Again, the procedure isn't done yet, but opposition parties wanted the bill to include a ban under donations made by individuals under what is called “mind control.”

Shaun McKenna  19:11  

OK, mind control in this context is different from what maybe we think of in English, is that correct?

Kanako Takahara  19:18  

Right. So mind control, in English, you would probably think of like sci-fi movies.

Shaun McKenna  19:24  

Yeah. Some villain kind of hypnotizing a bunch of people.

Kanako Takahara  19:28  

But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about psychological manipulation. So that's what is up for debate since the ruling parties think it is difficult for a third party to determine what is going on in someone's head. But for the opposition, not including this will mean that many people will continue to be victims of coercion.

Shaun McKenna  19:50  

There are two other investigations going on into the Unification Church. Can you explain those to us?

Kanako Takahara  19:55  

So the education ministry is looking at whether there has been possible wrongdoings by the organization that's damaging to the public welfare. And this is the first time that the education ministry has conducted this investigation on a group. So it's really epoch-making in a way.

Shaun McKenna  20:17  

Right. What might be the result of this?

Kanako Takahara  20:21  

So if the education ministry sees there's some kind of wrongdoing, they could request the court to take the case and see if it needs to be stripped of the religious corporation status. So that's a status for religious corporations that could benefit from tax exemption. So that's big, in a sense for their profits, but also it would damage the reputation as a religious organization. So that's really going to be damaging for the group.

Shaun McKenna  20:53  

So what is the other probe that's going on?

Kanako Takahara  20:56  

So the other probe which is more at the initial stage concerns possible adoptions that have occurred among the church’s members, so some members adopting other members' children, the church has denied this has happened saying these were private arrangements among members.

Shaun McKenna  21:13  

OK, so this wasn't a systemic thing organized by the church. That's what they're saying.

Kanako Takahara  21:16  

Right, a system of adoption or the exchange of money would be against Japanese laws. Such an organization has to register with the government before engaging in such practices.

Shaun McKenna  21:27  

OK, so there's a less than perfect bill that Kishida is trying to get passed in this parliamentary session. Two ministries have launched probes into the church, one of which is on adoption practices. Will these actions satisfy the public enough to get the government's approval ratings up?

Kanako Takahara  21:43  

It's still hard to say at this point.

Shaun McKenna  21:45  

So does Kishida need to get past this if he's going to get any of his other priorities through?

Kanako Takahara  21:30  

So after the July Upper House election, she was believed to have the “three golden years” of not having a national level election and work on his pet policies, like the new capitalism. But because of the Unification Church problem, he's using up his political capital, and his support rate is tanking. So if his support rate continues on like this, we don't know if he will be able to survive next year. So in April next year, there are a bunch of local elections to be held. And in May, a G7 summit will be held in  Hiroshima, which is his hometown. So if things don't improve by then, there might be voices internally within the LDP to replace him.

Shaun McKenna  22:36  

Gotcha. Kanako Takahara, thanks for coming back to Deep Dive.

Kanako Takahara  22:43  

Thanks, Shaun.

Shaun McKenna 22:47

My thanks again to Kanako Takahara for joining us on today’s show. The story is ongoing, but, since recording my chat with her I’ll add that this morning the opposition agreed to put Kishida’s donations bill to a vote in the Lower House. That means it’s pretty certain to pass before the end of the current Diet session, which would be a win for Kishida. However, the opposition parties still maintain the bill does not go far enough in helping victims. 

Meanwhile, a Kyodo news survey found that at least 334 out of 2,570 prefectural assembly members in Japan have had dealings with the Unification Church or its affiliates, with 80% of those belonging to the ruling LDP. The implication there is that the influence of the religious group is also widespread among regional politicians.  

Elsewhere in The Japan Times, sports reporter and resident soccer expert Dan Orlowitz does a post-mortem on Japan’s inspiring World Cup performance. The tournament is set to wrap up next week, let’s hope Nadeshiko Japan fares better when the FIFA Women’s World Cup is held in Australia and New Zealand in July 2023.

Dave Cortez was responsible for production on today’s episode, and our theme music comes courtesy of LLLL. The outgoing track was produced by Oscar Boyd. Until next week, podtsukaresama.