CDPJ begins studying Unification Church issues

Following reports that Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspect in the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, held a grudge against the religious group widely known as the Unification Church as his mother had donated large amounts of money to the group, causing her to go bankrupt, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has begun assessing the situation to identify and deal with any relevant problems.

According to sources, the group officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification extorted donations from followers.

On Monday, the CDPJ heard about the extent of the damage from one of its House of Councillors members, Yoshifu Arita, at the first meeting of the party’s task force set up to deal with the issue.

Arita, who is also a journalist, has been investigating issues related to the religious group. His term as an upper house member ended on Monday.

“The religious group caused quite a lot of harm to many people. This is a problem that can’t be overlooked,” said CDPJ Secretary General Chinami Nishimura, who leads the task force.

Nishimura said the party intends to also investigate ties between CDPJ lawmakers and organizations related to the religious group.