Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Masa Moriyama, is the cabinet member with jurisdiction over religious corporations and is calling for the dissolution of the Unification Church.
Given the power and responsibility that accompanied Moriyama's position, his relationship with the Unification Church needed to be absolutely clean.
But it seems that wasn't the case.
To fairly assess the situation, one must conclude that Moriyama is no longer fit to remain in the prime minister's position.
It has been revealed that during the 2021 House of Representatives election campaign, Moriyama received a “letter of recommendation” and campaign support from the World Peace Federation (official name: Family Federation for World Peace and Unification), an organization affiliated with the Unification Church. Ta. .
Suspicions have also surfaced that Moriyama and the federation exchanged a “recommendation confirmation letter,'' which is effectively a policy agreement.
Two days before the campaign officially began, Moriyama attended a national policy briefing session sponsored by the federation and reportedly received a letter of recommendation. According to reports, during the election period, members of the federation called voters to encourage them to vote for Moriyama and provided updates to Moriyama's office as needed.
However, in response to the 2022 Liberal Democratic Party investigation, Moriyama only reported that he gave a short speech at a meeting of the federation held about five months after winning the 2021 election, and did not mention anything about the election campaign. . .
And when he took office as Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology last fall, he did not say anything about this movement.
During a question session in the Diet on February 6, Moriyama explained that he had no clear confirmation or recollection of the incident. It's clear he wants to keep his past secret, but that only further erodes public trust in the government.
After the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022, it was revealed that the Unification Church and some Liberal Democratic Party members had exchanged “recommendation confirmation letters” regarding election campaign support.
It is not yet clear how these letters will affect LDP policy, but they do indicate that LDP members are pledging to move forward with constitutional amendments while cautiously approaching the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage. Ta.
The letter also included a promise to work towards the enactment of the “Family Education Support Act'' and the “Basic Act for the Healthy Development of Youth,'' which are promoted by the Unification Church.
Since this is an education-related law, this point should be taken seriously, and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's understanding and understanding should be questioned.
The Tokyo District Court is scheduled to hear the opinions of both the government and the Unification Church from February 22 regarding the request for the dissolution of the Unification Church.
However, given Mr. Moriyama's apparent “debt” to the Unification Church, we seriously doubt the success of the hearing.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who appointed Moriyama to his cabinet, bears an extremely heavy responsibility. However, Mr. Kishida defended Mr. Moriyama's refusal to resign, simply repeating in the Diet that “we will sever ties in the future.''
However, now that the reality that was not yet clear when Moriyama took office has become clear, there is no reason for Kishida to ignore this issue.
And it has become all too clear how sloppy the Liberal Democratic Party's “examination” was.
The church is said to have asked dozens of Liberal Democratic Party members to sign a “recommendation confirmation form.”
If the party does not conduct a thorough investigation now, the unresolved relationship with the Unification Church will come back to haunt the party.
–Asahi Shimbun, February 7th
