Japan’s government may ask courts to order the dissolution of the Unification church following the assassination in July last year of the former prime minister Shinzo Abe, according to multiple local reports.
The church, whose members are known colloquially as Moonies, could be subject to a court order to disband as early as next month, pending the completion of an inquiry into the group’s controversial fundraising activities, according to the Kyodo news agency, which cited an unnamed government source.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying the government has concluded that dissolution would be appropriate given that the church had engaged in “vicious, organised and continued” activities that outweighed considerations of religious freedoms enshrined in the constitution.
Under Japan’s religious corporations law, a court can issue a dissolution order if an organisation has committed acts that are “clearly recognised as being substantially detrimental to public welfare”.
Groups that are dissolved are stripped of their status as a religious corporation, losing their exemption from corporate and property taxes, as well as a tax on income from monetary offerings, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.
But it could operate in a new incarnation. After it lost its status as a religious legal entity in late 1995, the Aum doomsday cult renamed itself Aleph and continues to recruit members and solicit donations, according to the justice ministry.
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