Fumio Kishida tries to counter the loss of popular support after learning that several ministers have ties to the religious organization linked to the assassination of the former president
Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, this Wednesday undertook a major overhaul of his cabinet, just a month after the July 10 partial elections, in which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) confirmed the majority needed to make changes in the promote the constitution. The reason, to stop the slump in public support for the executive branch and any suspicious connection to the Unification Church, the religious group that has been in the eye of the hurricane after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in the nip, after a meeting that several of his ministers were associated with.
On July 8, a 41-year-old former military officer named Tetsuya Yamagami shot Abe dead while participating in a PLD election rally in the city of Nara. The aggressor confessed to police that he had committed the crime because he held a “strong grudge” against the former president for the demise of his family. His mother had given all her savings to the Unification Church, which Abe was a member of. Not so much for religious reasons, but because they shared a staunch anti-communism. The former leader had even attended some of the organization’s events with his friend, former US President Donald Trump.
Yamagami never revealed the name of the religious organization that ruined his family, but local media, citing police reports, pointed to the Unification Church.
The organization is furious about this link. The president of the Japanese branch, Tomihiro Tanaka, offered a press conference on Wednesday in which he attacked the media. In his opinion, the “hateful” and “false” reporting that has been made constitutes a “religious persecution” and a “violation of human rights”.
“We have never committed acts of violence or murder,” he stressed, but the church receives “death threats” and some of its members, he has revealed, complain of abuse against him, including harassment of his children. However, he has admitted that the organization he chairs has common interests with the PLD, “essentially an opposition to communism.”
Founded in 1954 in South Korea by Reverend Moon and known around the world for its mass weddings, the Unification Church has three million followers, derogatoryly referred to as the “Moonies.” Several of its members have been arrested in Japan for threats to obtain funding, such as using “ancestral karma.”
After Abe’s assassination, it was revealed that several members of the government had ties to this church, sparking outrage and leading to a loss of popular support for the government. To put a stop to this fall, Kishida has replaced nine ministers and removed another five from the portfolio. In total there have been changes in 14 of the 19 ministries.
One of the most relevant is that of the Chief of Defense. Yasukazu Hamada takes office, a long career politician who reaches a key position as Kishida promised to increase the military budget. The recent tensions in the Strait of Formosa between China and Taiwan will undoubtedly pose a challenge to the new minister.
Other challenges for the renewed cabinet include the aftermath of the covid pandemic and the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, especially the rise in the cost of living. Inflation stood at 2.2% in June and has risen above the 2% set by the Bank of Japan for three consecutive months, the largest increase since 2016.
Source: La Verdad
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