Unification Church

TOKYO: The mother of the man arrested for the killing of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is a member of the Unification Church, the church's Japan ...

The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, a self-declared messiah and strident anti-communist. Yamagami's mother first joined the church around 1998 but stopped attending in a period between 2009 and 2017, Tanaka said. Neither Abe nor the man arrested for his shooting were members of the church, Tanaka said.

Tetsuya Yamagami's mother attends meetings, says Unification church, after he told investigators of grudge.

Media reports said a public memorial and other ceremonies would be held at a later date, including in Abe’s constituency in Yamaguchi prefecture, in the south-west. Kishida said Sunday’s vote had been a victory for democracy. Abe’s maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960, was reportedly involved in setting up a political group linked to the Unification church, which shared his anti-communist views. “We will do everything we can to help our friends carry the burden of this loss,” he added, calling Abe “a man of vision with the ability to realise that vision”, after a meeting with Kishida. Donald Trump is among other prominent figures to have addressed the group, known for its conservative views, in an attempt to secure its followers’ support. In a statement released on Saturday, the church expressed its “shock and grief” over Abe’s death, describing him as a “globally respected statesman of Japan and active in building peace in Asia”.

The mother of the man accused of murdering Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe over a grudge against an organisation belongs to the Unification Church, ...

"There are people who donate large sums of money. Investigators have told local media that Yamagami originally wanted to kill the leader of the group he resented, but decided to target Abe instead in the belief he was linked to the organisation. "The mother of the suspect Yamagami belongs to our church and she has been attending our events about once a month," Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the church in Japan, told reporters at a hastily organised press conference in Tokyo.

The gunman, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, told police after the assassination that he had targeted Abe in his belief that the former PM was linked to a "religious group ...

The church said neither Abe nor Yamagami was a member of the church. Yamagami claimed that his mother paid the group exorbitant dues that left his family bankrupt and broken. TOKYO (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): The Unification Church in Japan on Monday (July 11) said the mother of the gunman who last week assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe was a member of the church.

The 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami ― who was arrested at the scene of the crime in Nara, Japan, after opening fire with his handmade weapon during Abe's campaign ...

The suspect had originally intended to launch an attack on the church's leader, with whom he had difficulty making contact. After his mother took over the business, she began to donate huge sums to the religious sect, eventually filing for bankruptcy in the Nara District Court in 2002. Founded in 1954 by Moon Sun-myung, a self-proclaimed messiah, the controversial church claims to have at least 3 million members worldwide.

The Japan branch of South Korea's Unification Church acknowledged as its member the mother of the suspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister ...

The Japanese affiliate of a South Korean-founded religious group confirmed the mother of the person charged with assassinating former Prime Minister Shinzo ...

The mother of the man accused of murdering Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe over a grudge against an organisation belongs to the Unification Church, ...

"There are people who donate large sums of money. Investigators have told local media that Yamagami originally wanted to kill the leader of the group he resented, but decided to target Abe instead in the belief he was linked to the organisation. "The mother of the suspect Yamagami belongs to our church and she has been attending our events about once a month," Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the church in Japan, told reporters at a hastily organised press conference in Tokyo.

The Unification Church, with links to conservative political parties worldwide, said Monday that the mother of the man charged in Shinzo Abe's death was a ...

In the 1970s and 1980s, the group faced lawsuits over soliciting funds and charges of “brainwashing” by parents who said their children had been forced to join. Speaking by video feed, Mr. Abe praised the group for its “focus and emphasis on family values.” The shooting shook a nation where gun violence is rare, but during a wake for Mr. Abe on Monday night at one of Tokyo’s largest Buddhist temples, there were few signs of increased security. They expressed hope the meeting would “open up new paths for peaceful reconciliation.” The church, which did not specifically identify itself as the group cited by the police, said it had no records indicating that Mr. Yamagami had ever been a member and was not aware of any threats directed by him at its members. At a news conference on Monday, church officials detailed the organization’s ties to Mr. Yamagami’s mother, describing her as a longtime member. The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. It later expanded overseas, building a network of newspapers and civic organizations that it used to develop ties with conservative political parties around the world. The police have revealed few details about Mr. Yamagami, 41, who has been charged with murder. His connections to the Unification Church were probably “very weak,” Mr. Sakurai said, describing Mr. Abe’s remarks to the group as “ordinary work for politicians who wanted to collect votes.” During a news briefing on Monday, the police said that Mr. Yamagami had confessed to testing an improvised weapon the day before the shooting of Mr. Abe. The police said Friday that several improvised guns had been seized from Mr. Yamagami’s apartment. TOKYO — When Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, he told the police he had “a grudge” against a “certain group.” But the authorities haven’t identified the organization or explained its connection to Mr. Abe. The Unification Church, with links to conservative political parties worldwide, said Monday that the mother of the man charged in Shinzo Abe’s death was a member.

Shinzo Abe. 90th・96th〜98th Prime Minister of Japan · Sun Myung Moon. Korean religious leader · Hyung Jin Moon. South Korean unificationist leader.

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But Abe's assassination has stunned residents of a country where gun violence is almost unheard of.

The group, famed for its mass weddings and business connections, has now found itself in the headlines following the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

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"There is a big distance between having resentment toward our association and killing former Prime Minister Abe," Tomihiro Tanaka, the Japan office chairman of ...

By the 1980s the church had a global reach and it remains prominent in parts of Asia today. It rose to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, an era of upheaval in South Korea, which at the time was transforming from a poor country torn apart by civil war to one of the world's most modern economies. "My mother got into a group and made a large donation and my family life was messed up." Nara police said Monday that Yamagami may have carried out a test shooting in the early hours of Thursday morning, a day before Abe's assassination, against the building of "a certain group" in Nara prefecture. Yamagami had used a homemade weapon, which he practiced shooting in the mountains days before the killing, according to NHK. The firearms "suited his goal of killing Abe without fail," Yamagami said, according to NHK. But Yamagami himself was never a member of the church, Tanaka said in a statement.

TOKYO -- Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese branch of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification C.

Man who killed former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe cited grudge against the global religious movement.

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The church is known for its unique take on Christianity and practices that critics have termed as that of a cult. The suspect in Shinzo Abe's assassination ...

The Unification Church identifies Moon as the Messiah who will implant God’s heart of love in his followers and complete Jesus’ works. The church is known for its unique take on Christianity and practices that critics have termed as that of a cult. He said he did not know what caused those difficulties, Reuters reported.

The curtains have come down on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the sobering end of his funeral. But the cloud of suspicion surrounding his ...

The campaigns against cults are widely understood and supported by the public and have brought a breath of fresh air to the society." "The Unification Church has a strong capacity for brainwashing with propaganda and external expansion. Church leaders plotted a strategy to defend former US President Richard M. Nixon for his role in the Watergate crisis and held rallies in support of him. Along with the expansion of the Unification Church was the growth of Moon's business empire. In recent years, the cult's infiltration efforts have become more active in China. Its affiliated organization "International Education Foundation," for instance, carried out penetration activities in some cities in the name of cultural exchange and educational cooperation. One of the activities that the Unification Church likes to practice is mass weddings. In the late 1970s, Moon was embroiled in many scandals and was under investigation by US federal authorities mainly over allegations that he has ties to South Korean intelligence and was involved in bribing members of Congress to support President Park Chung-hee, according to a New York Times report. He settled in the US in 1972. He also sent his church emissaries to Japan in the early days when the Unification Church developed fast. Moon began organizing the Unification Church on a large scale in the US in the early 1970s. Moon founded the Unification Church in South Korea in 1954. The curtains have come down on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the sobering end of his funeral.

With door-to-door sales tactics that targeted grieving elderly people and the cultivation of prominent political leaders, the Unification Church has spent ...

In the speech, Kook Jin denied that the church was pressuring Japanese people to make large donations to save the spirits of their deceased loved ones. “It was a very difficult time,” Kook Jin said in a speech that year, “because the police were conducting quite an extensive investigation of our church. Moon started his first newspaper in Japan in 1975 and brought his signature mass marriages of followers to the country soon thereafter. The Unification Church taught that Eve had had sexual relations with Satan, leading mankind to fall from grace, with Moon now appointed to bring humanity to salvation. Tomihiro Tanaka, who runs the church’s Japanese branch, said at a news conference Monday that Yamagami’s mother joined the organization in 1998, then left for a time and returned to the fold this year. “Whenever we asked where the money was coming from, the answer was it just came ‘from Father,’ ” the term church members used for Moon.