Fumio Kishida tries to counteract the loss of popular support after learning of the ties of several ministers with the religious organization linked to the assassination of the former president
The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has undertaken this Wednesday a profound remodeling of his Cabinet, just one month after the partial elections of July 10 in which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) confirmed the majority necessary to promote changes in the Constitution. The reason, to stop the sharp drop in public support for the Executive and to nip in the bud any suspicious link with the Unification Church, the religious group that is in the eye of the hurricane after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, after meeting that several of his ministers were linked to it.
On July 8, a 41-year-old former military officer named Tetsuya Yamagami shot and killed Abe while he was participating in a PLD election rally in the city of Nara. The aggressor confessed to the police that he committed the crime because he had a “strong resentment” towards the former president for the ruin of his family. His mother had given all of his savings to the Unification Church, to which Abe was affiliated. Not so much for religious reasons, but because they shared a fervent anti-communism. The former leader had even participated in some of the organization’s events with his friend, former US President Donald Trump.
Yamagami never actually revealed the name of the religious organization that had ruined his family, but local media, citing police reports, pointed to the Unification Church.
The organization has been enraged by 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” coverage that has been carried out constitutes a “religious persecution” and a “violation of human rights.”
“We have never committed violent acts or murders,” he stressed, but the church is receiving “death threats” and some of its members, he has revealed, complain of abuses against him, including harassment of his children. However, he has admitted that the organization he chairs has interests in common with the PLD, “fundamentally an opposition to communism.”
Founded in 1954 in South Korea by Reverend Moon and known around the world for its massive weddings, the Unification Church has three million followers, who are disparagingly nicknamed the ‘Moonies’. Several of its members have been arrested in Japan for threats to obtain funding, such as the use of ‘ancestral karma’.
The challenges
After Abe’s assassination, it came to light that several members of the government were linked to this church, sparking outrage and leading to a consequent loss of popular support for the government. In order to stop this fall, Kishida has replaced nine ministers and moved 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 head of Defense. Yasukazu Hamada takes office, a politician with a long career who reaches a key position, since Kishida promised to increase the military budget. The recent tension in the Formosa Strait between China and Taiwan will undoubtedly be a challenge for the new minister.
Other challenges for the renewed Cabinet will be the aftermath of the covid pandemic and the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, especially the increase in the cost of living. Inflation stood at 2.2% in June and accumulates three months in a row above the 2% set by the Bank of Japan, which represents the largest increase since 2016.
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