Japanese court orders the Moonies to disband

​Members of the Lawyers from Across Japan for the Victims of the Unification Church(LAJAVUC)attend a press conference as the Tokyo District Court issued a dissolution order to the Unification Church, the religious group formerly called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Tokyo on March 25, 2025.
Members of the Lawyers from Across Japan for the Victims of the Unification Church(LAJAVUC)attend a press conference as the Tokyo District Court issued a dissolution order to the Unification Church, the religious group formerly called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Tokyo on March 25, 2025.

On Tuesday, a Tokyo court revoked the legal status of the Unification Church in Japan, ordering the sect known as the Moonies to disband following a government problem spurred by the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

Founded in 1954 in Seoul, South Korea, by Sun Myung Moon, a preacher who cast himself as a messiah, the church raised an estimated 70% of its income in Japan, where its followers heavily pressured Japanese to give donations known as tithings to make up for the brutality of the country’s imperial era.

Widely derided as a cult, the Moonies claimed less than 100,000 followers in Japan in recent years – less than .1% of the country’s population, but pseudo and new-wave religious groups are popular in Japan, with an estimated 180,000 of them, or one for every 700 people. The Unification Church enjoyed outsize influence in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party that has governed Japan for most of the post-war era. Moon was a close friend of Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who saw the sect as an ally against communism. The Moonies retained political influence by fundraising and promoting hundreds of candidates from the LDP.

In 2022, Tetsuya Yamagami admitted to killing Abe in an act of purported retribution after his mother, who was involved with the Moonies, donated over $1 million to the church. The confessed assassin accused Abe for allowing the church, which he blamed for leaving his family bankrupt, to prosper in Japan.

The church said Tuesday’s dissolution order was “absolutely unacceptable” and a threat to religious freedom. It is considering an immediate appeal, but David Boling, Japan director at Eurasia Group doesn't believe that will amount to much. “No one is interested in defending the church," he says. "The attitude of the Japanese public is ‘good riddance.’”

More from GZERO Media

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa daughter helps him cast his vote, at a polling station, during the presidential election, in Olon, Ecuador April 13, 2025.
REUTERS/David Diaz Arcos

After a tight first round, Daniel Noboa's tough-on-crime approach carried the day in Sunday's runoff against progressive candidate Luisa González.

US President Donald J. Trump signs executive orders in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 25, 2025.

Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that aims to secure elections by requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. The order aims to guard against illegal immigrants voting in elections and would require all ballots to be received by Election Day.

US President Donald Trump attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 10, 2025.
REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Wednesday’s tariff respite is firmly in the rearview mirror, as China announced on Friday it was raising its duty on US imports to an astronomical 125%, taking effect Saturday.