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Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kihsida speaks to media at the Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo on Oct. 12, 2023.
Japan moves to punish Unification Church
Japan’s government has asked a court to strike the legal status of the Unification Church, which has been at the center of an investigation for over a year following the assassination of former PM Shinzo Abe. Abe’s killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, was outraged that the church had solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from his mother, ruining the family’s finances.
Yamagami told police he believed Abe was a supporter of the church, and while never a member, Abe did praise the movement’s family values. After the assassination, it was revealed that dozens of ruling Liberal Democratic Party politicians had connections to the church, including Abe’s grandfather. PM Fumio Kishida replaced his defense and economy ministers amid these revelations and passed stricter laws on how religious groups can fundraise.
Will this be the undoing of the church? It stands to lose its tax-exempt status, which it has allegedly exploited as it pressured members into making enormous donations. The government estimates the Church pressured about 1,550 individuals to donate an average of around ¥13 million (roughly $86,000) each.
The church is likely to appeal, and the case may go before Japan’s Supreme Court, but there is good reason to expect the government to win. Courts, after all, have already used the same powers to crack down on an exorcism cult and a terrorist sect.
Whatever goes down in court, the church’s political influence has already evaporated.
“It’s toast,” says Eurasia Group Japan expert David Boling, of the church’s future in Japan, adding that the court case may help Kishida as he eyes possible snap elections. “The Japanese public fully supports this move, so it's a political freebie for Kishida. The LDP wants nothing to do with the Unification Church.”
For more on the Unification Church and its role in Japanese politics, read our deep dive here. And, check out more of Boling’s insights on Kishida’s political outlook here.
Students from the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., hold hands after getting off a bus to meet their parents at the reunification site following a mass shooting.
Hard Numbers: Nashville school shooting, Rohingya flee to Indonesia, Deutsche disruption, America’s tumbling tolerance, white-collar AI wipeout
6: Six people, including three young children and three adults, were killed on Monday at the Covenant School, a private Christian primary school in Nashville, Tenn. Audrey Hale, a former student, was identified as the shooter. The 28-year-old was shot and killed by police during the attack, the 130th mass shooting in the US this year.
184: That’s how many Rohingya refugees landed in Indonesia’s western Aceh province on Monday. Each year, asylum-seekers flee persecution in Myanmar by making the treacherous voyage through the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea to reach Muslim-majority Indonesia or Malaysia.
24: Transportation across Germany ground to a halt Monday in the country’s largest walkout in decades. Unions called a rare 24-hour strike to press for a double-digit rise wage hike amid soaring inflation — partly due to Germany kicking its Russian natural gas habit over the war in Ukraine.
58: So much for loving thy neighbor. A new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll finds that just 58% of Americans believe that tolerance for others is very important, down from 80% four years ago. People in the US now prioritize money more than patriotism and religion. Why? Experts cite the economy, COVID, and fractured politics.
300 million: Generative artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT — which can create human-like content — could put a whopping 300 million people out of work within a decade in big economies. According to Goldman Sachs, lawyers and administrative staff are the most at risk, and two-thirds of jobs in the US and Europe could be exposed to some form of automation.
Beina Lesanjir, a woman who escaped gender based violence, participates in a traditional dance at the Umoja village, Kenya.
Hard Numbers: A Kenyan “No man’s land”, Nicaragua strips critics, Eastern migrations soar, big money Bible
0: The defining feature of Umoja, a village in northeastern Kenya, is that it has precisely zero men. The town, which bans the Y-chromosome entirely (at least among adults), was set up decades ago as a refuge for women fleeing domestic violence, genital mutilation, or child marriage. Some 40 families now live there.
94: The Nicaraguan government of strongman Daniel Ortega has stripped 94 of his critics of their citizenship. The move, which violates international law, is part of a two-year-long crackdown on civil society in which hundreds of Ortega’s critics or opponents have been jailed or forced abroad.
64: The number of migrants undertaking treacherous migrations from East Africa through Yemen and onward to the Gulf countries has increased 64% over the past year. Women and children make up a large part of the rise along the so-called “Eastern Migration Route.”
50 million: The Bible warns against “love of money,” sure, but if you’ve already got $50 million burning a hole in your robes, you could be the owner of a nearly complete Hebrew Bible from a thousand years ago. The book goes on auction at Sotheby’s in May.
Marcos attends a news conference at his headquarters in Manila.
What We're Watching: Marcos inauguration, Indian religious tensions, risotto shortage
Will Marcos 2.0 be kind to the Philippine media?
Weeks after winning the election in a landslide, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (aka Bongbong, or more recently BBM) will be inaugurated on Thursday as president of the Philippines. He has a lot on his plate, including uniting — as he promised repeatedly during the campaign — a country deeply divided over the legacy of his father, the late dictator. One issue that'll surely pop up soon is how he'll handle the media, which was heavily censored under the elder Marcos’ martial law. On Tuesday, the Philippine SEC ordered the shutdown of Rappler, the news site run by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, a vocal critic of outgoing strongman President Rodrigo Duterte. BBM will also face pressure to return a broadcast franchise to ABS-CBN, the country's biggest network, which Duterte canceled in early 2020 (and Marcos' dad also took off the air entirely in the 1980s). Supporters say Marcos 2.0 wants to kick off his presidency with a charm offensive to appease his enemies, but he may have more of a problem with his most powerful friend. Overturning two of Duterte's most controversial decisions would not go down well with the famously pugnacious outgoing leader — whose feisty daughter is … Marcos’s VP.
Religious tensions put Indian state on high alert
Authorities in Udaipur — the capital of Rajasthan, India's largest state — have cut off the internet and banned large gatherings amid fresh religious tensions over the murder of a Hindu man by two Muslims. The suspects — now in custody — recorded the violence and posted it online, claiming they were justified because the victim had voiced support for two now-suspended officials from the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party who made controversial comments about the Prophet Mohammed a month ago. The comments sparked violent protests throughout India, as well as a diplomatic kerfuffle with the Islamic world, yet PM Narendra Modi has rebuffed calls for an apology. (In another video, the assailants of the Hindu man’s murder appear to threaten Modi with cleavers.) Religious tensions are common in majority-Hindu India, so what's different now? First, attacks by Muslims against Hindus are rare and will surely inflame the latter; second, the clip is still going viral among Hindu nationalists outside Udaipur — upping the odds of further violence that could spread. In case you're wondering, the state is governed by the opposition Congress Party, always eager to score political points by blaming the crisis on the BJP.
Risotto lovers may want to stock up
Arborio rice — the type used to make beloved Italian risotto — has hit hard times due to a lack of rain as Italy faces its worst drought in over 70 years. This year’s rice fields in the Po River valley are too dry to harvest. But Italy is far from the only place suffering. In Mexico, extreme weather – from droughts to heavy storms to flooding – is disrupting the production of its famed chili peppers. In France and Canada, meanwhile, storms and rain pushed seed production down by 50% this past year, impacting condiment availability. While arborio rice, peppers, and seeds are being hurt by weather patterns, other countries are struggling with hunger pains as a result of the Russian invasion. Curiously, on the other side of the globe, Asia’s greatest source of resilience to the Ukraine wheat crisis has been its rice production. This is a relief, seeing as South, Southeast, and East Asia are responsible for the world’s production and consumption of 80% of the world’s rice. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of the risk of several famines being declared this year – and with the war raging on, fears things could grow even worse for food production in 2023.Pakistan minister deletes tweet containing Macron Nazi jibe
France had demanded Pakistan authorities withdraw the comments posted on Twitter by Pakistan's Federal Minister for Human Rights.
Temple kissing scenes stir trouble for Netflix India
NEW DELHI (REUTERS) - An Indian state on Sunday (Nov 22) asked police to investigate after a member of the country's ruling party objected to scenes in the Netflix series A Suitable Boy, in which a Hindu girl kisses a Muslim boy against the backdrop of a Hindu temple.
Thai monks ordered not to join protests
More than 90 per cent of Thais are Buddhists and religion has traditionally been seen as one of the pillars of Thai society.
Hard slog ahead for Suu Kyi's party which is expected to win again in Myanmar election
BANGKOK - Yangon residents have been holed up at home in the run-up to Myanmar's Nov 8 general election because of the Covid-19 pandemic.