Reverend Shindo Mizuta, chief priest of Kongo-ji Temple, says that if the Unification Church is dissolved, many religions and temples will be at risk as well.
March 24, 2025
[We publish an English translation of an interview with a leading Buddhist monk in Japan, Reverend Shindo Mizuta, chief priest of Kongo-ji Temple, granted to journalist Nobuo Kubota of the Sekai Nippon].
Shindo Mizuta was born in 1980 and is the chief priest of Kongo-ji Temple, a Rinzai sect temple of the Myoshinji school, in Nishimamon, Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Tohoku University and completed his graduate studies at the same university. After two years of training at Zuiganji Specialized Training Center (Matsushima-cho, Miyagi Prefecture), he became the deputy chief priest of Kongo-ji Temple, and has been the chief priest of the same temple since 2014.
In the wake of the shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (July 8, 2022), the media has repeatedly criticized the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly known as the Unification Church) and its “contacts” with politics. Under the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) filed a request for a dissolution order in the Tokyo District Court against the Family Federation, despite the fact that it was never found guilty in any criminal case and on the sole grounds of it having lost civil cases. I spoke to Shindo Mizuta, the chief priest of Kongo-ji Temple in Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, who is concerned about the impact on other religions.
Q: What do you think of the media coverage of the shooting of Shinzo Abe and the Family Federation?A: To be honest, I just took what I saw on TV and in the newspapers as it was, that some people said it was like a “cult” and that it sold vases and books for high prices. So, I thought it was only natural that they would be asked to disband. Until last summer, I didn’t really question the reports that the son of a Unification Church follower shot Abe because of these things, and I just thought it was unfortunate that Abe had been shot.
Q: What happened last summer?A: A member of the Unification Church came to see me and said, “There are a lot of things being said in the media, but people don’t know much about it, so please try to understand.” At first, I was on guard. However, I was in a position where I wanted to listen to all sides of the story, so I listened to what they had to say. After that, I looked up information on the Internet. They may have engaged in aggressive solicitation of donations thirty or forty years ago, but since the Unification Church made its “compliance declaration” (in 2009), there have been no incidents of aggressive solicitation. If you think about it carefully, what the assassin of Abe, Tetsuya Yamagami, did is strange. If the president of the Unification Church had been shot, I could understand it, even if I would in no way condone it. But Mr. Abe was shot and they criticized the Unification Church so much. My current impression is that the way the media reported it was quite strange.
Q: The exercise of the right of questioning by the MEXT against the Family Federation, the request for a dissolution order, and the hearings at the Tokyo District Court are not open to the public, but the way all this was done was aggressive, and suspicions of false and fabricated evidentiary statements were raised in the Diet.A: Simply put, it’s absurd.
Christianity, the Family Federation, and Buddhism all have different religious doctrines. I don’t intend to make that an issue. I’m talking about legal arguments. If this request for a dissolution order is granted, I think that we, as other religious sects, will eventually be unable to defend ourselves when a dissolution order request is directed at us with unreasonable logic. After the war, the only religious corporations to have had dissolution orders issued against them were Aum Shinrikyo and Myokaku-ji Temple, which violated the Criminal Code. But now the reference to “unlawful acts” as possible ground for dissolution of a religious organization is expanded to include “unlawful acts under the Civil Code.”
When you read the request for a dissolution order against the Family Federation drafted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, you see expressions such as “large donations.” But who decides where the line is between an unlawful large donation and a legitimate contribution? For example, 10 million yen is a lot of money to me, but a small amount to a billionaire. For an elderly person living alone on a pension, even 50,000 yen is a lot of money. For example, if a temple needs to be rebuilt and asks for donations of 100,000 yen, some may wonder whether 100,000 yen is enough, while others may think that it is too much. If the Unification Church case sets a precedent, the grandchild of someone who donated 10 million yen to a temple may file a civil lawsuit twenty years later, claiming that “my grandfather donated the money because he was brainwashed by the chief priest, so the temple should return it.” The temple may be suddenly asked to disband for that reason, leaving it surprised and without defense.
Q: Does including torts under the Civil Code among the grounds for requesting dissolution indicate that administrative power over religion has increased?A: The government now has the cards in its hands. I think they will start taxing religious corporations at a suitable point. For example, they could impose partial taxation on things like stupas and amulets. For that reason, I am very concerned that they will use requests for dissolution orders and the exercise of the right to question as bargaining chips.
Source: bitterwinter.org
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