Japan: Dissolution of the Unification Church. The Duval Report. 1. The Religious Aim of Donations

The dissolution decision is based on the accusation of soliciting excessive donations. But their religious nature is ignored.

By Patricia Duval

April 21, 2025

The 2025 grand opening of the Family Federation’s Cheon Won Gung Cheonil Sanctum in South Korea. From Facebook.

The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, previously known as the Unification Church, referred to as “Unification Church” or the “Church” in this series, has recently been the subject of media exposure worldwide due to the Japanese government’s decision to request dissolution of its 600,000 followers’ affiliate in Japan, and the decision of the Tokyo District Court to grant that request in a first instance ruling on March 25, 2025.

The whole issue is presented as a financial one, a problem with donations. The Church is accused of having raised excessive donations and “ruined” a significant number of followers.

The purpose of this series is to offer a global review of the court decision in context: first, to clarify the use of donations per the findings of the government itself; second, to describe the Japanese context; third, to analyze the court decision; and fourth, to draw all the necessary conclusions.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), which oversees religious affairs and requested the dissolution of the religious corporation, described in its dissolution claim the purpose or use of the donations as follows: “The corporation uses these believer donations as its primary source of funds to cover expenditures such as proselytization costs, church maintenance expenses, operational expenses, ceremonial expenses, international missionary assistance expenses, financial outlays such as fixed asset acquisitions, and special expenditures including charitable donations.”

The Unification Church followers claim to be a Christian denomination, and their faith is based on their interpretation of the Bible. They believe that Jesus Christ was the first Messiah and their founder Reverend Sun Myung Moon (1925–2012) is the second Messiah, who came to accomplish what Jesus could not finish, which is the restoration of family values and family love, based on which peace and unification of humanity can be achieved worldwide.

Donations are intended to maintain the religious institutions of the Church, ensure the practice and propagation of the faith, including missionary assistance worldwide and charitable activities. This is nothing different from what all religious denominations do worldwide.

It is inherent to the right to manifest one’s religion or belief, which includes the right to establish and maintain religious institutions, and the right to solicit donations (General Assembly of the United Nations, “Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief,” General Assembly Resolution 36/55, November 25 1981, Article 6 [b] and [f]). Solicitation of donations is therefore an activity that is totally legitimate in itself.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon with his wife and successor, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. From X.

MEXT provided an exhibit to the dissolution request with the following testimony: “Section 2: Testimony by General Affairs Bureau Chief Nobuo Okamura (Exhibit B6-3). On December 19, 2001, Nobuo Okamura, General Affairs Bureau Chief, testified to the following facts in the Tokyo District Court (Testimony Transcript, Pages 7–8): 1. Donations were used not only for domestic expenses but also for international highway projects and overseas missionary work. 2. Donations were first sent to the Headquarters of the World Missions in America and then distributed to overseas destinations. 3. Funds were used for various seminars, conventions, meetings, and church construction worldwide. 4. Financial support was also provided for activities in impoverished countries. 5. The funds were not collected for Rev. Sun Myung Moon.”

It can be concluded that the donations collected from Japanese believers were: 1) never used for personal enrichment; and 2) on the contrary, were designed to spread the faith and help people worldwide, in particular in impoverished countries. This actually is in line with the stated motto of the founder, Reverend Moon, which was: “Living for the sake of others.”

In the same document, MEXT provided the list of countries “supported” by the Church through donations solicited in Japan. “Section 3: Specific Supported Countries. The Unification Church targets 194 countries worldwide for missionary activities. Donations from Japan have been used for missionary work in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and other countries globally. As a result, church foundations have been established across North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Oceania. Since 2013, missionary activities by second-generation believers from Japan have also become active, with financial aid provided for their overseas missions. The countries where second-generation believers were dispatched include: North and South America: 8 countries in Central and South America.

Asia-Pacific: 14 countries. Europe and the Middle East: 9 countries. Africa: 10 countries.”

All the above is taken from the findings of MEXT during the dissolution proceedings.

The procedure for requesting a court to order the dissolution of a religious corporation under Japanese law comprises a pre-trial phase of questioning the corporation in order to compile information for the case. From November 2022 to the end of 2023, MEXT sent seven sets of questions, which the court refers to as “requests for reports” to the Church, related to its structure, functioning, religious practice and activities, and litigation instances. Based on the reports received, MEXT compiled information, including the one cited above, and filed it as part of its dissolution claim to the Tokyo District Court.

However, the court did not mention in its decision the part of the information that could have explained the use of donations. It simply ignored these facts and the faith motivation for raising donations. The court instead found that the solicitation of donations was motivated by a “malicious intent,” based on some old civil court rulings of tort, a point that will be developed further in this analysis.

The fact that these elements were not mentioned in the decision evidences that the court did not take into account the evidence in favor and against, applying due process of law, but on the contrary showed an obvious bias and, in order to reach its preconceived decision of dissolution, used only the arguments that could support it.

A Family Federation event in Poland. Source: FFWPU Mission Support.

As a matter of fact, in the European Union and Middle East alone, as at 2020, the Church was duly registered and operating in the following countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Israel, Turkey, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands.

Japan sets itself apart from the international community by ordering the dissolution of a Church well-established worldwide.

Source: bitterwinter.org