"Moonies" church in Japan offers $67 million in victim compensation as court mulls shutting it down

Tokyo — Seeking to fend off existential threats to its operations in the country, the Unification Church in Japan offered up to $67 million Tuesday to compensate victims of the group's high-pressure and allegedly fraudulent donation tactics. Speaking to reporters at the Tokyo headquarters of the group formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, leader Tomihiro Tanaka said the funds would be disbursed by the government, although the exact details remain unclear and the government has declined to comment on the plan.

"I offer my heartfelt apology to all those who have suffered due to our shortcomings, and especially to the second-generation believers who have endured difficult experiences, as well as to all the people of our nation," Tanaka said, seated below a large portrait of the late founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife. Tanaka disputes accusations that the group systematically preyed on followers and blamed excesses on "inadequate guidance."

The hefty peace offering comes as the Tokyo District Court weighs whether to revoke the tax-exempt status of the controversial group, often referred to as Unificationists or simply as the "Moonies," and place its assets in liquidation.

Tanaka said the Unification Church in Japan had already paid out $29 million in compensation in response to 664 claims as of October.

Founded in South Korea in 1954, the church set up shop one decade later in Japan by cultivating close ties with Japan's conservative ruling party.

Among founder Moon's more unusual endeavors, $75 million in followers' donations were believed to have financed part of a pet project — a now-aborted plan to build a world-record-busting 140-mile, $170 billion undersea tunnel between Japan and South Korea.

By offering to set up a victims' compensation fund, the church is also responding to widespread speculation that it might seek to transfer its assets overseas — out of the reach of victims seeking relief — before it potentially loses its religious status in Japan.

The church's proposal would more than cover damages sought by 130 confirmed victims, according to a group of lawyers representing them. But the legal group has said the true extent of damages is likely around $700 million, or ten times what the church is offering.

The Unification Church has 600,000 members in Japan but says only 100,000 remain active. Many are senior citizens, and the organization has struggled to keep second-generation members in the fold. In the wake of the government's effort to seek the church's dissolution, Tanaka said, members have endured harassment and ostracism.

A Kyodo News poll on the government's decision to seek to dissolve the Unification Church found a whopping 86% of respondents supported the move.

The Nikkei business newspaper said tax exemptions were revoked for nearly 100 religious groups in the decade through 2022; but in all these cases, the organizations were defunct. If the Unification Church loses its religious status for engaging in illegal activity, it would be only the third such case in Japan, following the disbandment of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult after members released lethal sarin gas on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

If the church, as expected, appeals a revocation verdict, the case could take years to resolve.

Protections for religious freedom enshrined in Japanese law have allowed some 180,000 religious groups to take root in the country in which, ironically, the overwhelming majority of citizens consider themselves non-religious.

Japan, one of the Unification Church's first overseas bases, has been its most lucrative source of income. Victims have described being pressured to spend thousands of dollars on religious paraphernalia and field trips to South Korea. After lurid accounts of the church's high-intensity fundraising began to attract unwanted attention in the 1980s, the politically well-connected church was allowed to change its name to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The church's fortunes tumbled last year when the embittered son of a parishioner assassinated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in broad daylight with a homemade gun as the politician gave a campaign speech in Nara.

Tetsuya Yamagami, who'd spotted Abe delivering remarks in a Unification Church video online, said his mother had ruined their family by donating $670,000 to the group. Instead of being reviled for his act of violence, however, Yamagami, has been showered with gifts of clothing and confections — and he's managed to shift the spotlight back on the church's victims.

His trial may start next year.

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• South Korea
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