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05-08-2022, 07:54 AM
With all the controversy now raging in Japan about the Unification Church and its connection with the political establishment, a major question on the minds of many people is why the name change in 2015 to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unifiction.
The Unification Church applied for the name change while Shinzo Abe was midway through his long second stint as prime minister.
The bureaucrat who certified the application said, “A lot of time has passed so my memory is ambiguous and I have no documents from that time.”
According to Maekawa, the Unification Church consulted with division officials about a possible name change in 1997. At the time, the church was embroiled in a number of civil lawsuits over its so-called spiritual sales tactics that left members feeling so harassed they ended up purchasing expensive items to fill the church’s coffers.
A group called the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales that got involved in helping people who felt they had been taken advantage of by the Unification Church submitted a document to Shimomura in March 2015 asking him not to certify any name change application submitted by the church.
That request was ignored and the application was approved five months later.
“Few people realize that the Unification Church and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification are one and the same,” said Yasuo Kawai, secretary-general of the network. “I believe the name change was one factor for the continuing issues” emanating from the church’s activities.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14686350
The Unification Church applied for the name change while Shinzo Abe was midway through his long second stint as prime minister.
The bureaucrat who certified the application said, “A lot of time has passed so my memory is ambiguous and I have no documents from that time.”
According to Maekawa, the Unification Church consulted with division officials about a possible name change in 1997. At the time, the church was embroiled in a number of civil lawsuits over its so-called spiritual sales tactics that left members feeling so harassed they ended up purchasing expensive items to fill the church’s coffers.
A group called the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales that got involved in helping people who felt they had been taken advantage of by the Unification Church submitted a document to Shimomura in March 2015 asking him not to certify any name change application submitted by the church.
That request was ignored and the application was approved five months later.
“Few people realize that the Unification Church and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification are one and the same,” said Yasuo Kawai, secretary-general of the network. “I believe the name change was one factor for the continuing issues” emanating from the church’s activities.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14686350
