The mother of the man accused of having murdered on Friday Shinzo Abe is a member of the Unification Church, confirmed on Monday this organization also known under the name of “moon sect“, from which the suspect wanted revenge by attacking the former Japanese prime minister.
Here are some elements about this religious movement born in South Korea, which always maintained links with political leaders, while setting up a world economic empire.
Who was its founder?
The highly controversial Sun Myung Moon (1920-2012) was born into a farming family in what is now North Korea. At the age of 15, he claimed to have had a vision of Jesus Christ asking him to continue his mission so that humanity would reach a state of “sinless” purity.
Moon He founded his own church in Seoul in 1954, which soon got into politics, initially adopting a clearly anti-communist line, and attracting the sympathy of the South Korean military regime of the time.
Moon he also dealt with foreign heads of state, such as Richard Nixon in the United States, whom he supported during the Watergate scandal. In France in the 1980s, his Church had brief ties to the far-right National Front movement.
The organization gradually became an economic empire present in various sectors (construction, food, automobile, tourism, media…), which made its founder a billionaire.
Sun Myung Moon undertook his first world tour in 1965 and settled in the United States in the 1970s. Convicted of tax evasion, he spent more than a year in prison in the United States in the early 1980s.
What is its importance?
The Reunification Church, known for holding massive mass weddings, is currently controlled by the widow of its founder, Hak Ja Han, his second wife, with whom he had a dozen children.
The organization had stated in 2012 that it had three million faithful worldwide, an exaggerated figure, according to experts. Its influence would have receded since the 1980s, due to social and political changes in South Korea, internal divisions and the death of its founder.
Regardless of its country of origin, the Church is mainly present in the United States, in Japanbut also -especially in the 1980s- in Latin America, and in particular in Brazil.
What links does he have with Shinzo Abe?
the alleged murderer of AbeTetsuya Yamagami, 41, “hated a certain organization” and had decided to kill the former prime minister because he thought he had a link to the organization, Japanese police said on Friday.
According to local media, it would be a religious organization -not mentioned- and Yamagami hated it because it would have obtained important donations from his mother, which put his family in serious financial difficulties.
Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church, confirmed on Monday that the suspect’s mother had been a member of the organization since 1998 and had been in financial difficulties since 2002, although he claims to ignore the reasons for this, as the “Donations are voluntary.”
Tanaka also stressed that Shinzo Abe was “never” one of their members or an advisor.
However, organizations close to the Unification Church regularly invite leading political personalities for conferences on the topic of world peace.
Former President Donald Trump participated in one such discussion online in 2021, and Abe had been criticized by a group of Japanese lawyers for sending a video message during a similar event. (AFP)
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