TOKYO—Japan’s Parliament on Saturday passed a law that bars high-pressure fundraising tactics, a measure aimed at the church founded by the late Rev. Moon Sun-myung.
The law’s final approval came just five months after the July 8 assassination of former Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe
triggered a reappraisal of the former Unification Church, which until the killing had ties to many ruling-party members while drawing little public attention.
Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida,
whose support ratings fell sharply after revelations about the ties, rushed the legislation through Parliament in a bid to put the issue behind him. He has also ordered a first-of-its-kind probe into the church that could lead to it being stripped of its legal status and tax deduction.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks in Tokyo Saturday as the nation’s parliament passes the new fundraising law.
Photo:
Kyodonews/Zuma Press
The suspect in the assassination, Tetsuya Yamagami, said in online comments and a letter sent before the assassination that he held a grudge against the church because he believed his mother’s involvement with the church had ruined his family. The mother declared bankruptcy in 2002 after donations that topped the equivalent of $700,000, according to Mr. Yamagami’s uncle.
Mr. Yamagami told police that he targeted Mr. Abe because of the former prime minister’s connections to the church, which included speaking to church-linked groups.
The law won final passage in Parliament’s upper house Saturday and will take effect by early next year.
It bars religious groups such as the former Unification Church, now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, from taking advantage of followers’ anxieties or fears in soliciting money.
The law forbids the groups’ fundraisers from appealing to teachings about spiritual powers that lack a rational basis—for example, by saying that spiritual forces will punish the…
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