Tetsuya Yamagami confessed to killing Japan’s former prime minister during a campaign speech on Friday. He blamed the global religious movement – whose members are often referred to as Moonies – for his family’s bankruptcy and believed Abe had supported his activities in Japan. The church’s Japan branch confirmed that Yamagami’s mother is a member, but declined to comment on the suspect’s claims that he had made a “huge donation” more than 20 years ago that left the family in financial trouble. Branch president Tomihiro Tanaka told a news conference that Yamagami’s mother became a fan in the late 1990s, adding that the family had suffered financial ruin around 2002. Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church, at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday. Photo: KYODO/Reuters The official name of the organization is the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, although it is more commonly known as the Unification church. It was founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, whose strong anti-communism would lead him to build ties with conservative politicians around the world, including Japan. Moon, who died in 2012, said he had a vision at the age of 15 in which Jesus told him to complete his unfulfilled mission of restoring humanity to a state of “sinless” purity. The church’s early followers were effective recruiters, and membership grew from an initial group of 100 missionaries to about 10,000 within a few years. Often described as a cult motivated by financial gain, the church became known for organizing mass weddings in huge sports stadiums – involving thousands of couples meeting for the first time – and once claimed to have around 3 million followers worldwide. But worldwide membership of the church, whose teachings include new interpretations of the Bible, has fallen sharply to several hundred thousand since its peak in the 1980s, according to some experts. Its connection to Japan is inextricable from the instability of the post-war years, when conservative politicians sought to build alliances they believed would prevent the country from embracing communism. Among them was Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who reportedly founded an organization with ties to the church. It was Kishi’s decision to court Moon and his followers in Japan that reportedly led Yamagami to target his grandson. Yamagami reportedly told investigators he fired an improvised weapon at a Unification church near his home the day before targeting Abe. The Asahi Shimbun cited residents who said they heard a loud bang in the early hours of July 7. The Japan chapter was founded in 1959 – the penultimate year of Kishi’s three-year term as prime minister – as the church sent missionaries to Japan and the US to forge ties with important political and business leaders. Last September Abe delivered a congratulatory speech via video link at an event organized by an affiliate, the World Peace Federation. Donald Trump is among other conservative politicians who have publicly associated themselves with the church. Abe had been criticized for speaking at events organized by church affiliates. Last year lawyers representing people who say they lost money because of the church filed a letter of protest after the video message was delivered. They also protested when Abe sent a telegram to a mass wedding in 2006. Moon, who moved to the US in the early 1970s, had long-standing ties to Japan, having studied engineering at a high school in Tokyo. He was charged with tax evasion in the US in 1981 and served 11 months in prison. In 2008, Moon passed control of the church to his youngest son, Hyung Jin Moon, who later formed a breakaway organization, the Sanctuary Church, after falling out with his mother, Hak Ja Han. He now controls the Unification church. Police have not publicly identified the group Yamagami blames for his family’s financial problems, and most Japanese media organizations declined to name it until Monday’s news conference. With Agence France-Presse
