US paper "Japanese LDP and unification church share 'anti-communism' circle clearly" ... Focus on relationship with Abe's case = Korean coverage

The U.S. daily economic magazine "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) reported that the mother of the suspect who killed Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a believer in the "Unification Church of the World Peace" (formerly the Unification Church). It was reported on July 14th (local time) that the anti-communist relationship between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the former Unification Church has continued for a long time.

According to media reports, religious groups cannot legally exert influence over politics in Japan, but former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, the maternal grandfather of former Prime Minister Abe, who served as Prime Minister from 1957 to 1960, supported the anti-communist activities of Mr. Moon Sunmyung, the guru of the former Unification Church in 1960s.

The former Unification Church created the "International Federation for Victory and Coalition" in 1968 with the slogan "Communism is wrong". According to the website of the International Federation for Victory and Coalition, Mr. Moon always said, "Let's not drop the flag of 'winning the communist forces' until the communists disappear from the world."

Professor Levi McLaughlin of the University of North Carolina, USA, who is studying the relationship between Japanese politics and religion, told the Wall Street Journal, "Because the former Unification Church is an ambitious religion, it tried to buy the joy of those in power and with the LDP for interests. They maintained a close relationship." The Wall Street Journal also pointed out that the former Unification Church was interacting not only with the former Prime Minister Abe's family, but also with other influential people of the LDP. Professor Mclaughlin introduced an episode that former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, who was an important person of the LDP, referred to Mr. Moon "one of the greatest leaders in Asia" in 1974.


According to political scientist Richard J. Samuels, the number of members of the former Unification Church in Japan has exceeded the number of members in South Korea since the 1970s, and some of the members even worked for the LDP free of charge.

The Wall Street Journal explained that the former Unification Church established another organization, the World Peace Union, in Japan in the 1990s, and lobbied the political world by holding seminars and publishing publications. Looking at the homepage of the World Peace Union, the organization is a brotherhood of the International Federation for Victory and Coalition.

He also presented "countries with defensive power," "countries with family power," and "countries with contribution power" as goals that Japan should aim for. Strengthening defense is a major policy promoted by the LDP, and "home" is a word that the former Unification Church emphasizes.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "300 out of about 6,000 subscribers to the monthly magazine 'World Thought' published by the World Peace Union are politicians, and most of them are from the Liberal Democratic Party, appeared several times on the cover page of." However, the Wall Street Journal reported that the LDP and the former Unification Church both denied the view that they were closely related.

A LDP official said, "I don't know the relationship between the party and the former Unification Church." The former Unification Church also said, "The former Prime Minister Abe was not a believer or adviser to the former Unification Church."