One of the attorneys representing the Unification Church discusses the unethical tactics used by the government in the case.
by Nobuya Fukumoto
Article 1 of 3
In the lawsuit seeking a dissolution order against the Family Federation (former Unification Church, UC, and still often referred to with that name), the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) submitted a total of 294 written statements or deposition transcripts prepared by former UC members and others. However, among the authors of these statements, there were 33 individuals who were not former members, including relatives of current members, MEXT officials, and an opposition lawyer. Additionally, regarding the 261 former members, approximately 90% had joined more than fifteen years ago, including individuals who joined over fifty years ago or left the organization decades ago.
For these individuals, MEXT submitted statements and deposition transcripts that had been previously used in lawsuits against the Family Federation.
On the other hand, only 19 former first-generation members who joined the Family Federation after the 2009 compliance declaration (by which the UC amended its policy regarding donations and sales of artifacts, making it compliant with new Japanese consumer laws) were included. 18 provided statements prepared through interviews conducted by the MEXT, during which they signed and sealed their statements. These were then submitted as evidence in the dissolution order lawsuit. The remaining individual was a plaintiff in a past lawsuit against the Family Federation, and the MEXT submitted the statement prepared by that plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The Family Federation challenged the falsity of the contents even of the older statements and transcripts. However, the critical issue in the dissolution order lawsuit was whether valid grounds for dissolution existed at present. Therefore, the Family Federation conducted a particularly thorough rebuttal regarding the statements of the 18 former first-generation members mentioned above. Finally, among those who joined the Family Federation after 2005, five former female members, whose statements were demonstrably false based on objective evidence, were selected, and a request was made for their cross-examination. However, the MEXT refused to allow the cross-examination of the two individuals among them who had submitted especially false statements. Finally, the court allowed cross-examination, among the remaining three, against two former female members, W1 and W2. Consequently, W1 was cross-examined on December 9, 2024, and W2 was cross-examined on December 12, 2024. Interrogations of three active believers in total, who were provided by the Family Federation, were also conducted on both hearing dates.
The purpose of their cross-examination was to establish that the MEXT had created false statements in an attempt to incriminate the Family Federation.
Cross-Examination of W1
(1) Allegations in W1’s Written Statement
W1 is a woman born in 1955 who, at the time of signing her written statement in July 2023, was a 67-year-old former member. The following circumstances were described in W1’s written statement:
| Timeline | Event |
| Around June 2015 | Invited by a member of the Family Federation, W1 began studying its teachings at a Family Federation related educational facility. |
| August 2015 | Based on her family tree, W1 was given explanations about the problems attributed to her ancestors and received the following instructions: W1 needed to perform ancestral liberation for the ancestors, because mental disease, including distress of her daughter, was caused by resentment of the ancestors. The family lineage of W1 was “terrible.” The abuse W1 suffered from her mother and her divorce were due to her family lineage. As the savior of her family lineage, W1 needed to rescue her ancestors suffering in hell. There were many types of hell, and many of her ancestors were suffering there. If W1 rescued her ancestors, both she and her family could avoid going to hell. By saving her ancestors, W1 and her daughter would be freed from misfortune caused by ancestral karma. Her ancestors were suffering in prison-like conditions in hell, and W1 was urged to make donations to free them from their suffering. |
| August 2015 to September 2018 | W1 repeatedly made donations for ancestral liberation, totaling 49.72 million yen. |
| September 2019 | After requesting a refund of her donations, W1 reached a settlement for 6 million yen. |
| July 2022 | Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and subsequent critical media reports about the Family Federation, W1 hired a lawyer to pursue further refund negotiations. The Family Federation claimed that her total donations amounted to 11.19 million yen. |
| November 2022 | In a parliamentary session, Prime Minister Kishida stated that if a religious organization induces its followers to sign a pledge not to seek a refund of donations, such actions could be considered an element in determining the illegality of the solicitation of donations. Based on this, W1’s lawyer argued that the previous settlement (particularly the agreement not to request a refund of donations beyond the 6 million yen) was invalid. |
| December 2022 | A new settlement was reached for 24 million yen. |
The main point of the narrative of W1’s written statement was that W1’s daughter suffered from multiple mental illnesses, including depression, and this was W1’s biggest concern. W1 had been constantly seeking ways to improve her daughter’s condition. During this time, a member of the Family Federation told her, “Your daughter’s illness is caused by the resentment against your ancestors. The ancestral karma is the root cause of her mental illness. By saving your ancestors, you can free yourself and your daughter from this misfortune.” This statement instilled fear and anxiety in W1, leading her to make donations as instructed.
(2) Falsity of Testimony in W1’s Written Statement
The falsity of the testimony provided in W1’s written statement was evident from the following facts.
(ⅰ) No evidence of W1’s daughter’s illness:
The lawyer of the Family Federation investigated the case and interviewed active members but none had ever heard of W1’s daughter suffering from depression or other mental illnesses. Therefore, it was impossible for donations to have been solicited based on the daughter’s alleged illness. Additionally, no one had told W1 that her ancestors were in hell and that she needed to make donations to liberate them and break ancestral karma.
(ⅱ) Contradictions in W1’s 2016 document:
In a document written by W1 in 2016, it was noted that her daughter was employed by a major firm, was highly regarded by her supervisor, and had been especially nominated and participated in a project related to Prime Minister Abe’s trip to the Middle East. These details suggested that W1’s daughter was not suffering from depression or other mental illnesses.
(ⅲ) Statements during the 2019 refund negotiations:
During refund negotiations with the church in September 2019, W1 made the following remarks, but there was no mention of her daughter suffering from mental illness or being asked to donate based on such claims. (This is supported by recorded audio.)
-W1’s daughter was responsible for training new employees at her company, and training incompetent newcomers caused her a lot of stress.
-W1’s daughter frequently went for watching baseball games and went out drinking with friends, to the point that her room reeked of alcohol.
-W1’s daughter had not experienced improvements in her skin condition (mild atopic dermatitis), behavior, attitude, or appearance, and W1 felt deceived by the Family Federation. However, W1 admitted that she made the donations aware of their meaning.
(ⅳ) Alcohol consumption and depression:
Medical guidance for depression patients typically advises against alcohol consumption. If W1’s daughter was drinking heavily and regularly, it would contradict the claim that W1 wished to cure her daughter.
(ⅴ) Notification from W1’s lawyer in August 2022:
A notification sent by W1’s lawyer to the Family Federation on August 5, 2022, outlined the “damages” W1 allegedly suffered. However, there was no mention of her daughter having a mental illness or being pressured to donate based on this claim.
(ⅵ) Ritual about W1’s brother:
W1 reportedly performed a spiritual blessing ceremony (a ritual of the Family Federation for the marriage of a spirit) for her unmarried brother. After the ceremony, her brother claimed to have seen his future spouse in a dream and recognized the officiant of the ceremony in another dream. When W1 showed her brother a photo of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, he identified him as the person in his dream.
(ⅶ) Involvement in Cryptocurrency Fraud and ulterior motives:
According to active members, W1 had been scammed in a cryptocurrency fraud, losing a significant amount of money. Subsequently, she adopted another faith. It was revealed that W1 sought a refund from the Family Federation to recover the money lost in the cryptocurrency fraud and use it for her new religion. The donations W1’s lawyer demanded included an amount of ¥6,942,380, dated July 29, 2016. However, there was no record of W1 having made a donation on this date, and such specific amounts were not typical for donations. It appeared that this amount was derived from her bank transaction history and that payments made to the cryptocurrency organization, including transfer fees, were falsely claimed as donations.
(3) Results of the Cross-Examination of W1
The cross-examination of W1 revealed the following:
W1 acknowledged that the content in the document referenced in (2) (ii) was true, that the statements referenced in (2) (iii) were factual, and that the events involving her brother described in (2) (vi) had indeed occurred. She also admitted that the spiritual blessing ceremony (spiritual and physical blessing) based on the Family Federation’s beliefs was beneficial for her brother.
Regarding (2) (vii), she confirmed the facts that she had lost a significant amount of money in the cryptocurrencyfraud and had performed ancestral liberation rituals with another religion.
On the other hand, when questioned about her claim in August 2015 that she had heard a story about her ancestors being in hell based on her family tree, W1 could hardly answer concretely what exactly she had heard at the time. Namely, she was unable to testify confirming any of the threatening content spanning approximately 20 lines in her written statement. It shows that the content of the statement was fabricated.
W1 admitted that when she made donations, she was 100 % convinced by what she was told at the time and made the donations willingly. She also acknowledged that she later requested a refund because the donations did not result in any improvement as she had expected for her daughter.
Furthermore, although her written statement claimed that she was pressured to donate after being told her ancestors were suffering in hell, she in the court admitted her resentment toward her mother, that she wished her mother to go to hell. And she also testified that whether her ancestors were suffering in hell was not a matter of concern, and rather, the purpose of conducting ancestor liberation andancestor blessing was ultimately to seek “worldly benefits,” expecting that issues faced by herself and her families in this world would be resolved through the workings of the spirit world.
Regarding her daughter’s depression, W1 testified that her daughter had visited a psychiatrist only once around the age of 20. She added, “I was naïve and thought that if she went, we might find some solution, so I made her go.” She actually acknowledged that the visit was merely intended to seek a clue for improving the relationship with her daughter.
When asked about her daughter’s mental state, she merely stated that her daughter “was not cheerful.”
The time when W1’s daughter is said to have visited a psychiatrist at the age of 20 was around the year 2003, 12 years before W1 encountered the Family Federation. During that period, the daughter had neither visited a psychiatrist nor received any treatment. Furthermore, W1’s remark, “I was naïve and thought we might find a solution,” suggests that sending her daughter to a psychiatrist was unnecessary and may have worsened the situation. In other words, she carelessly believed that sending her daughter, who did not actually have a mental illness, to a psychiatrist would enable her to find a clue to improve their relationship, but the result was counterproductive.
When W1 was asked whether she had reviewed and confirmed the content of her written statement before signing and sealing it, she replied that she had not read it in detail. This implies that parts of the statement could conflict with her actual understanding.
From the above, it became evident that the claims in W1’s written statement—that her daughter was suffering from multiple mental illnesses such as depression, that W1 was constantly seeking ways to improve her daughter’s condition, or that she was told her ancestors were in hell and needed to be liberated—were fabrications by MEXT officials. These claims did not align with W1’s own understanding and were false accounts created by MEXT.
