It has been eight days since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead while giving a speech in Nara.



Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested, is believed to have caused the incident after growing a grudge against the "Family Federation for World Peace and Unification" and the former Unification Church, to which his mother had donated a large amount.



After this incident, there have been a series of consultations with organizations that support the families of former Unification Church members.

After the shooting incident, the number of consultations with support groups increased by about 12 times

Since 2003, the Unification Church Victim Families Association, a private organization run by former members of the Unification Church and their families, has provided counseling and support for financial troubles and withdrawal from the Unification Church.



According to the association, the number of consultations from believers' families has increased rapidly after this incident, and the number of consultations last month was 94, about 12 times more than the previous month's eight.



54 consultations were from people whose wives, husbands, or parents are believers, followed by 12 consultations from people who have stopped believing.



Many of the consultations are related to financial troubles due to donations, etc., and the total amount of consultation received reached 800 million yen in the last month.



At the family's association, they say, "If you try to forcibly withdraw from the membership, it may have the opposite effect, so please consult with the contact point of the support group."



On the other hand, the "National Psychic Marketing Lawyer Liaison Association" also received a series of consultations, and immediately after the incident, there were days when 20 to 30 consultations came in a day.



Lawyer Yasuo Kawai of the Liaison Committee said, "In the wake of the incident, people who didn't know that the 'Family Federation for World Peace and Unification' was the same as the former Unification Church, and people who had given up because they didn't know what to do have contacted us." I was talking to



The "National Association of Lawyers Against Psychic Marketing Laws" accepts consultations by phone and e-mail.


Hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am to 4pm.


The numbers are 070-8975-3553 on Tuesdays and 070-8993-6734 on Thursdays.


The email address is "reikan@mx7.mesh.ne.jp".

What is the Old Unification Church?

The Old Unification Church is a religious organization founded in South Korea in 1954 under the name of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, and its founder is the late Mr. Moon Sung Myung, who is from North Korea.



In Japan, it was certified as a religious corporation in 1964.



The Old Unification Church has approximately 600,000 followers in the country.



According to the teachings of Mr. Moon and his wife, President Hak Ja Han, as the "True Parents of Mankind", the "Unification Principle", which is the universal truth revealed by Mr. Moon, is the doctrine. .



Mr. Moon has held joint weddings in South Korea and elsewhere, and in the 1990s, celebrities and others became a hot topic.



According to the organization's website, "Currently, we have adopted a system in which people register on a matching site and receive introductions. It is also possible to refuse marriage."



In addition, in 1968 during the Cold War, Mr. Moon established a conservative political group, the International Victory and Communist Alliance, in South Korea and Japan, which appealed to "liberate mankind from communism." is developing its claim.

Extortion of large donations and "psychic marketing" become a social problem

In the former Unification Church, the societal problem was the coercion of believers to make large donations and the sales of expensive goods to arouse anxiety.



According to the "National Association of Lawyers Against Spiritual Marketing Law", which provides consultations for former believers, the association received more than 20,000 consultations from 1987 to 2009, with a total amount of about 100 billion yen. about it.



A series of civil lawsuits were filed all over the country, and in 2010 the Fukuoka District Court ordered the former Unification Church to pay more than 100 million yen in damages. The plaintiffs won the lawsuit, and it was confirmed.



There have been a series of cases that have led to criminal cases. Seven members were arrested on suspicion of violating the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, and the facilities of the former Unification Church were searched.



Two senior members of the congregation received suspended convictions, while the remaining five received summary orders of fines.



In response to these incidents, the former Unification Church's Family Federation for World Peace and Unification decided in 2009 that it would not encourage or solicit donations that specifically tied to ancestors, and that encouragement and solicitation of donations should only be based on the faith of the individual. He announced a declaration that included strengthening compliance, such as respecting free will based on the law, and said that the number of civil lawsuits has decreased since then.



However, according to the liaison committee, the trouble continues, and from 2010 to 2021, the liaison committee received more than 2,600 consultations, amounting to more than 13 billion yen.



In 2020, the Tokyo District Court ordered the former Unification Church and other organizations to pay more than 4.7 million yen in compensation, ruling that the donations made by former members around 2013 were "recognized as having made the donation while continuing to be agitated by anxiety and fear." It was pointed out that it was an illegal act, and the trial was subsequently contested up to the Supreme Court, but the judgment of the first trial was maintained and confirmed.

Former Unification Church

Regarding the troubles after the declaration of compliance, the former Unification Church issued a statement on the 17th of last month, saying, "There have been cases in which believers who voluntarily donated in the past changed their minds and asked for their money back, and since 2009, there have been very few cases. It is true that we are dealing with such cases in good faith and working to resolve them.The tally compiled by the Liaison Committee is biased information on the side of the lawsuit."