24 junior ministers had Unification Church ties
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Twenty-four of the 54 state ministers and parliamentary vice ministers in Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet had ties to the religious group Unification Church, according to an analysis by The Asahi Shimbun.
However, none were found to have been implicated in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s fund-raising scandal.
While most have been reappointed from the previous administration under former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, five state ministers and three parliamentary vice ministers have been replaced.
Shortly after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022, The Asahi Shimbun asked lawmakers about their ties to the Unification Church.
In the survey, eight of the 26 state ministers and 11 of the 28 parliamentary vice ministers acknowledged their connections to the church, now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
Among these, only Hiroaki Saito, state minister of finance, was newly appointed to the Ishiba Cabinet.
Saito acknowledged receiving election support from the church and paying fees to attend its events.
In the free comment section of the survey, he wrote, “I was aware that this had become a social issue, but I didn’t fully understand the implications of (receiving support from the Unification Church) and had asked for support as I had from other religious and civic organizations.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15457543.
