“I did not kill him because I was opposed to his political beliefs, but because of his links with the Unification Church”, would have confessed to the police Tetsuya Yamagami. The alleged assassin of Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, hated this Church which had indoctrinated his mother: she had pushed the latter to give him all her property and had destroyed their family. By killing this eminent figure in Japanese political life, Tetsuya Yamagami wanted to draw public attention to the injustices that the Unification Church has been committing for decades.
Curiously, in Japan, the mainstream media did not mention the name of the Church and limited themselves to talking about“a specific organization” until the elections were passed, which were held two days later. However, previously, the Japanese media had extensively covered the predatory practices of what is also called the “Moon sect”. But his links with the right wing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (PLD), of which Abe was the undisputed leader, are taboo. This concealment until the end of an election won without surprise by the PLD, testifies to the influence of the religious group on Japanese political life and the ability of Abe’s party to muzzle the media.
Like many other “new religions” (in Japan, these are all the religions founded since the 19e century, as opposed to traditional religions such as Buddhism and Catholicism), Reverend Moon’s organization gained ground in the post-war era of rapid economic growth and urbanization. And like other religious movements that championed ultraconservative anti-communist policies, it forged ties with the LDP, which has ruled Japan for decades with little or no interruption. Each side benefited from this throughout the Cold War. In Japan, new religions are often considered to have little legitimacy. The participation of prominent conservative political leaders in their events and publications gave them some authority and credibility. The members of the PLD, for their part, won the votes of the followers of religious organizations.
Growing influence
The social problems caused by such religious groups in the 1980s and 1990s – some members being indoctrinated and ruined, their families torn apart – culminated in the sarin gas attack carried out by the Aum sect in the Tokyo subway. , in 1995. With the very negative media coverage of these excesses and the end of the cold war, the new religions were increasingly stigmatized, and their interest in the political world seemed to decline without disappearing. The introduction of the single non-transferable vote system in the 1996 legislative elections, and the ensuing realignment of political parties with the emergence of a more competitive two-party system, encouraged religious groups to again offer their services to the right.
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