UNIFICATION CHURCH

1. Context

2. What is Unification Church?

• The Unification Church is a religious group, often described as a 'cult' by critics, founded by the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954 in South Korea.
• The Church, known for its ultra-conservative and anti-communist views, first expanded its international reach in Japan in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• Reverend Moon, who died in 2012, was a self-declared messiah who tapped into the Japanese demographic by invoking traditional family values and leveraging a feeling of guilt over the country's past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
• Mr. Moon had an ambivalence toward Japan and his followers that their country and ancestors had sinned greatly for which they had to sacrifice everything for the church. Members were recruited in Japan through door-to-door campaigns, engaging relatives of an existing member, railway station drives, and university campaigns.
• The religious group collected massive donations from its adherents in multiple ways. Mr. Moon reportedly used these donations to expand his business empire and the Church's affiliated organizations.

3. Church's link to World Leaders

• Moon worked to transform his church into a worldwide religious movement and expand its business and charitable activities. Moon was convicted of tax evasion in 1982 and served a prison term in New York. He died in 2012.
• The church has developed relations with conservative world leaders, including US presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, and more recently Donald Trump.
• Moon also has ties with North Korea's founder Kim II sung, the late grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un. Moon said in his autobiography that he asked Kim to give up his nuclear ambitions and that Kim responded that his atomic program was for peaceful purposes and he had no intention to use it to "kill (Korean) compatriots."

4. Abe's Link

• Abe is known for his arch-conservative views on security and history issues and was backed by powerful lobbies such as the Nippon Kaigi. He appeared in events organized by church affiliates, including one in September 2021.
• In a video shown on a big screen at the meeting of the church-related Universal peace Federation, or UPF, Abe praised its work toward peace on the Korean Peninsula and the group's focus on family values. One of Abe's key positions was emphasizing traditional, paternalistic family systems.
• Reports of his appearance at the 2021 event drew criticisms from the Japanese Communist party and cult watchers, including a group of lawyers who have watched the Unification Church activities and supported its alleged victims.