Japan probes Unification Church after backlash over ruling party ties - Reuters

TOKYO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Japan launched a probe into the Unification Church connected Tuesday that could endanger its ineligible status, aft the assassination of erstwhile Prime Minister Shinzo Abe successful July revealed its adjacent ties to the ruling enactment and triggered a nationalist backlash.

For the Unification Church, founded successful South Korea successful 1954 and relying connected its Japan followers arsenic a cardinal root of income, the probe could present a terrible fiscal blow, affecting its taxation exemptions and adjacent its spot holdings.

The stakes are besides precocious for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government, teetering astatine an support complaint of conscionable 30% and anxious to quell the uproar implicit links to the Unification Church, which forced the resignation of his economical revitalisation curate past month.

"For Kishida, it's wide that this is simply a immense resistance connected him. He's going to beryllium linked to the Unification Church contented nary substance what," said Levi McLaughlin, an subordinate prof astatine North Carolina State University studying religion successful Japan.

The authorities has fixed the Unification Church until Dec. 9 to reply an archetypal bid of questions astir its finances and organisation, Culture Minister Keiko Nagaoka told a quality conference.

After gathering evidence, the ministry volition determine whether to question a tribunal bid revoking the Unification Church's ineligible standing, which could instrumentality respective months and beryllium followed by a lengthy ineligible battle.

The Unification Church expects to person the archetypal batch of authorities questions connected Wednesday and volition cooperate with the investigation, a spokesperson for the radical successful Japan said.

A elder religion authoritative astatine its South Korean office added: "Japan is simply a antiauthoritarian state that guarantees the state of religion, truthful we are intimately monitoring the situation."

Shiori Kanno, a lawyer connected a Consumer Affairs Agency sheet looking into the church's signifier of selling ginseng drinks, marble sculptures and different items to rise wealth from followers, said she expects the lawsuit to spell each the mode to the Supreme Court if the authorities ends up seeking to legally disband the church.

"The religion would suffer taxation exemptions specified arsenic those connected donations from members," she said. "It volition find it harder to get money."

She added, however, that losing its presumption arsenic a spiritual organisation would not forestall the religion from continuing its activities oregon its members from meeting.

BLAME

When Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested for the sidesplitting of erstwhile Prime Minister Abe successful July, helium blamed the spiritual organisation for impoverishing his household and said Abe, who had appeared astatine events sponsored by Unification Church-affiliated groups, had promoted it.

The Unification Church, known globally for its wide weddings, says it has stopped soliciting donations that make fiscal hardships for its followers and has curtailed assertive door-to-door income of religion goods, aft convictions a decennary agone related to specified practices prompted its then-leader successful Japan to resign.

With the spotlight connected the church's activities, however, Kishida has travel nether unit to code nationalist anger, stoked by revelations that much than fractional of each lawmakers successful the ruling Liberal Democratic Party had links to the church.

The uproar has persisted contempt a furniture reshuffle connected Aug. 10 that purged immoderate elder figures with links to the church. In precocious October, Economic Revitalisation Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa resigned aft revealing that he, too, had ties to the church.

Kishida volition beryllium peculiarly keen to enactment the contented down him earlier a bid of section elections adjacent April, erstwhile his enactment volition look voters connected a nationalist standard for the archetypal clip since winning the July precocious location predetermination that instantly followed Abe's death.

Reporting by Tim Kelly, Kaori Kaneko and Ju-min Park; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim, Kenneth Maxwell and Edmund Klamann

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