Supreme Court upholds disbandment decision for Unification Church

TOKYO — Japan's Supreme Court has upheld a lower court order urging the controversial religious group Unification Church to disband, calling it "necessary and inevitable" after its aggressive donation-soliciting tactics plagued followers for decades.

The church came under greater scrutiny for its links to ruling party politicians, especially after the killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by a man who held a grudge against the group over financial hardship endured by his family.

Presiding Justice Eriko Watanabe said the necessity of the church's dissolution outweighs its potential psychological effects on followers of the group as the Third Petty Bench of the top court reached the final decision on Monday.

The court said its dissolution is warranted in the absence of effective measures to stop the practice of systematically soliciting massive donations by urging followers to meet unachievable targets.

It also brushed aside the group's claim that ordering it to disband as a religious corporation goes against the Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion, supporting the lower court's judgment.

The ruling came after the church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, appealed the dissolution order by the Tokyo High Court in March.

At the time, the high court ruled the damages suffered by victims of the church's donation practice between March 1973 and June 2016 totaled about 7.4 billion yen ($46 million).

The high court decision has already led to the start of the group's liquidation process designed to compensate victims.

It is the first case in Japan in which a religious group has been ordered to dissolve for violating the Civil Code.

Japanese courts can order religious groups to dissolve for violations of laws and regulations, and the Unification Church is the third organization to receive such an order.

The AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult group, which carried out the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, was also ordered to disband.

The top court pointed out in its latest decision that the church's illegitimate conduct has brought "extremely large amounts of property damage to many people" between 1973 and 2022.

The lone shooter of Abe, Tetsuya Yamagami, claimed he targeted the former premier during an election campaign speech in 2022 because Abe's grandfather had helped introduce the Unification Church to Japan, according to investigative sources.

In January this year, Yamagami was sentenced to life in prison, a decision he has appealed.

© KYODO