Japan Cabinet minister resigns over Unification Church ties
(CPP/Agencies/Reuters)
Japan’s new cabinet minister for culture, arts, and education has resigned after a Japanese newspaper revealed he attended a secretive Unification Church, a key player in the country’s national religious movement.
The resignation on Thursday was not directly linked to his ties to the church. But Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who is from the church, has criticized the movement in recent speeches.
It remains unclear who the minister is, and his or her position in the cabinet. The cabinet and government has not commented on the matter.
In 2006, Abe was the first to hold a position in the church.
After the church entered the national pantheon as one of Japan’s most important movements, Abe rose to prominence, becoming prime minister in 2012 and then becoming the world’s first Asian prime minister following his inauguration.
The Unification Church, whose membership is about 25 million worldwide, has gained influence over the past decade, becoming a key player in Japan’s national religious movement.
The Church of Japan, a small church with about 80,000 members, has been criticized for its alleged use of child exploitation techniques and the lack of public debate on its teachings.
In a speech in 2012, Abe said, “You’ve heard of Christian anti-cult techniques of ‘hiding in plain sight’ — where we show we’re not the real thing.”
In 2005, Abe said he would never seek to bring the Church of Japan into the government, according to media reports.
In 2006 Abe became the first Japanese cabinet minister to have ties with the church.
On October 11, he invited the Church of Japan’s top leadership to the Imperial Palace, where the movement celebrated the 50th anniversary of when its founder Eido Shimano was executed following a police investigation into child trafficking in 1966.
The ministry of culture, arts, and education was established in April, according to the website of the Japanese Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications are not directly under Abe, who is prime minister of the country. The ministry does not answer to the prime minister, a position in which the cabinet minister is also often a member of the administration.
On Friday, the media reported that the new cabinet minister for culture, arts, and