March 27, 2025
TOKYO – With the harm caused by the Unification Church amounting to more than ¥20 billion over four decades, the Tokyo District Court focused on the scale of the damage and deemed that the organization systematically solicited illegal donations when it ordered the church’s dissolution on Tuesday.
Formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the church fiercely opposed the decision. It intends to appeal, which will likely cause the trial to drag on.
“The harm caused by the Unification Church accumulated over a long period of time and affected a wide range of people, which must have led to the impression that the group’s characteristic of tolerating illegal acts has not changed,” a veteran judge said about Tuesday’s decision.
Under the Religious Corporations Law, two conditions must be met for a court to issue a dissolution order for a religious corporation: It must have violated laws or regulations, and it must have committed an act that was found to have clearly caused substantial harm to the public welfare.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which sought the dissolution order, claimed that the church had illegally solicited donations — an act prohibited under the Civil Code — since at least 1980, therefore meeting both conditions.
The church argued that the requirement involving legal violations “applied only to cases involving criminal penalties.” However, in a separate trial, which was considered a preliminary of Tuesday’s trial, the Supreme Court ruled on March 3 that a religious organization that committed illegal acts under the Civil Code can be subject to a dissolution order. In Tuesday’s order, the Tokyo District Court made a similar decision.
The problem now was the latter condition about harming the public welfare.
Unlike the two previous dissolution orders given to the Aum Supreme Truth cult and Myokakuji group, where their top leaders were held criminally responsible, little evidence was available about whether instructions were given by the Unification Church’s senior members.
Since the Religious Corporations Law emphasizes such words as “clearly” and “substantially,” legal experts felt the hurdle was high for the damage to be recognized.
To overcome this obstacle, the ministry tried hard to prove that the illegal acts were done “at an organizational level with unscrupulous intent and on a continuing basis.”
The ministry particularly tried to prove the “organizational” nature of the church’s actions. It compiled as much information as possible on suits for damages, ultimately finding 32 civil court rulings and more than 1,000 out-of-court settlements reached between the victims and the church.
The ministry argued that the commonality and uniformity of these acts “suggest the organization’s presence.”
This strategy proved successful. The district court acknowledged the ministry’s assertion that over ¥20 billion in damage occurred over a 40-year period, with most of it inflicted as part of the Unification Church’s religious activities. The court then concluded that it “can be said that in terms of societal norms, these were acts of the religious organization.”
A veteran judge said, “With this many serious illegal acts presented, a court can’t disregard them just because they weren’t criminal cases.”
Potential to inflict damage
The church, meanwhile, emphasized “our organization has changed.”
It argued that activities were not done on a continuing basis because the number of complaints decreased drastically after its 2009 declaration of full compliance with relevant regulations in the wake of “spiritual sales” fraud by its followers.
The Unification Church also claimed that the group reviewed the ways to solicit donations after receiving guidance from the Cultural Affairs Agency when the group’s name change was approved in 2015. Therefore, “there are currently no grounds for dissolution,” it claimed.
The group was so aggressive in its assertions, it even accused ex-followers of fabricating their testimony about problems related to donations, at closed-door hearings of the district court.
However, the district court said the church did not investigate why followers solicited donations illegally and that it showed no sign of implementing any fundamental measures. The court thoroughly rejected the group’s arguments and concluded that it had the potential to inflict similar damage.
The church intends to appeal immediately, likely continuing its arguments at the Tokyo High Court.
Nihon University Prof. Eiichiro Takahata, a constitutional scholar, said Tuesday’s court decision “deemed that the church did not seriously try to stop its followers’ illegal acts.”
“Since its declaration of full compliance was deemed to have failed to eradicate the damage, it will be quite difficult for the church to overturn the dissolution order,” he added.