Agency for Cultural Affairs not able to produce key documents to come clean in face of allegations of fabricating evidence in dissolution case against religious minority the Family Federation
Tokyo, 28th January 2025 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs Refuses to Submit Evidence in Response to Allegations of Fabrications in Court Documents
by the editorial department of Sekai Nippo
prepared by Knut Holdhus
Senator Hamada’s Inquiry
When the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) requested the Tokyo District Court to issue a dissolution order for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church), a controversy arose following a report by this newspaper that the ministry’s submitted statements contained fabricated facts.
Reacting to this, on 22nd January, Satoshi Hamada (浜田聡), a member of the House of Councillors from the NHK Party, submitted a written inquiry to MEXT requesting the submission of supporting documents. On 27th January, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which handles religious corporations, replied that they could not provide the documents.
Senator Hamada specifically requested the submission of documents among MEXT’s court statements that were alleged to contain inaccuracies. He also inquired whether MEXT was aware of the media reports on this issue and asked for the ministry’s stance on the claim that some statements were factually incorrect.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs cited the closed nature of the court proceedings as the reason for not being able to submit the requested documents at this time. Furthermore, they stated that even after the trial concludes, since “the deliberations themselves will remain confidential, it is unclear whether the evidence documents can be provided.” However, they acknowledged awareness of the media reports on the matter.
MEXT has based its request for the dissolution order on approximately 300 written statements. A report published by this newspaper on 21st January claimed that multiple cases exist where individuals purported to be victims did not write the statements themselves and that some contained false information.
Featured image above: The national headquarters of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, located in Kyoto. Photo: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. License: CC Attr 4.0 Int