Flawed Reasoning of a Politician Backing Torts

Religious leader points out faulty reasoning of politician with “anti-cult” viewpoints who served as government advisor urging it to redefine the rules and include civil law violations

Tokyo, 30^th May 2026 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article.

Part 1a of opinion contribution by Hiroshi Kurose, Pastor of Tokyo West Baptist Church

“It Is Rash to Conclude That ‘Laws and Regulations’ Includes the Civil Code”

Response to Shiori Yamao in the June Issue of Monthly Hanada

by Hiroshi Kurose, Pastor of Tokyo West Baptist Church

On 4^th March 2026, the Tokyo High Court upheld the dissolution order against the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church). It had previously been issued by the district court. Liquidators are currently seizing and liquidating the organization‘s assets and property.

See also Warning of Dangerous Precedent: “Like Inquisition”

See also Beyond Dissolution: A Religious Purge in Japan?

See also Next Target After Dissolution: Believers’ Rights

See also How to Remain Free in an Age of Inquisition

See also Supreme Court Upholds Dissolution of Federation

Concerning this matter, I felt considerable discomfort with remarks made by attorney and former House of Representatives member Shiori Yamao (山尾志桜里) and literary critic Eitaro Ogawa (小川榮太郎), chairman of the Japan Institute for Peace Studies, in their dialogue published in the June 2026 issue of Monthly Hanada, titled: “Great Clash Debate Series 4: Dissolution of the Former Unification Church – What Was Actually Judged?”

Accordingly, I would like to summarize my objections to Yamao’s arguments (along with several other points).

First Issue: Does “Laws and Regulations” Include the Civil Code?

The first issue concerns Yamao’s statement on page 44 of the magazine:

“The provision for dissolution orders in the Religious Corporations Act was established in 1951. At the time of enactment, the government understood the term ‘laws and regulations’ as a broad concept encompassing laws and ordinances. … If it were intended to be limited to criminal law violations, the statute would have explicitly stated so. Since it deliberately uses the term ‘laws and regulations,’ the natural reading is that it includes all laws and ordinances – not only criminal law but also civil law.”

The question is whether, prior to the dissolution order against the Family Federation, it was generally understood that the interpretation of “laws and regulations” included the Civil Code.

Yamao argues that because the Religious Corporations Act uses the expression “laws and regulations”, which includes civil law, it is only natural that violations of civil law can serve as grounds for a dissolution order.

This explanation is misleading.

The Religious Corporations Act was enacted about seventy years ago. Naturally, the term “laws and regulations” used at that time included the Civil Code, but it was also an extremely broad term encompassing cabinet orders and local ordinances.

Yet Yamao has not even attempted to investigate why, throughout the subsequent history of the law, the interpretation that civil-law violations could serve as grounds for dissolution orders was never adopted.

The Religious Corporations Act was created primarily to grant legal personality to religious organizations. Accordingly, dissolution orders (Article 81) were not among its principal objectives, as is evident from the fact that they appear in Chapter 9, “Supplementary Provisions.”

Why, then, were dissolution orders included?

Primarily because there existed religious corporations that had ceased activities. The provision was intended to enable the dissolution of such inactive entities lacking real substance. That is likely why the lawmakers chose the extremely broad term “laws and regulations” as a basis for dissolution.

However, because this provision was not meant to be casually applied to active religious corporations, strict limiting conditions such as “significantly” and “clearly” were attached as safeguards against excessive use of dissolution orders.

The first dissolution order against a religious corporation based on violations of laws and regulations was the 1996 dissolution order against Aum Shinrikyo [See editor’s note below].

That case was fundamentally different from the type of dissolution originally contemplated by the Religious Corporations Act. One might question whether legislation such as the Religious Corporations Act was truly adequate for dealing with such a situation, but perhaps no alternative existed.

Application of the Subversive Activities Prevention Act was also considered. Ultimately, however, dissolution proceeded under the Religious Corporations Act, and the Supreme Court ruled that doing so did not violate freedom of religion.

Even afterward, no dissolution orders were issued for civil-law violations.

Given the statutory language concerning “violations of laws and regulations”, one might have expected numerous dissolution orders, yet in reality there were none. Why was that?

Likewise, why have many legal interpreters maintained that civil-law torts do not qualify as grounds for dissolution orders?

Ignoring those interpretations and focusing solely on the words “laws and regulations” in order to argue that civil law should be included only in the case of the former Unification Church seems excessively simplistic.

See also Warning of Dangerous Precedent: “Like Inquisition”

See also Beyond Dissolution: A Religious Purge in Japan?

See also Next Target After Dissolution: Believers’ Rights

See also How to Remain Free in an Age of Inquisition

See also Supreme Court Upholds Dissolution of Federation

To be continued. Part 1b coming soon.

Featured image above: Hiroshi Kurose (黒瀬博): Born in 1951 in Hiroshima Prefecture. Completed a master’s program in legal philosophy at the Graduate School of Law, Waseda University, in 1975. He graduated from Tokyo Theological University in 1978, completed advanced studies at Seinan Gakuin University’s Faculty of Theology in 1979, and graduated from the Zurich Baptist Seminary in 1984. He currently serves as pastor of Tokyo West Baptist Church. His major publications include A New Development of Christianity (Good Time Publishing). Photo (2025): Sekai Nippo

[Editor’s note: Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist new religious movement founded in 1984 by Shoko Asahara, preaching apocalyptic prophecies. It was dissolved in 1996 due to its leaders’ criminal acts, including the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995 and the Matsumoto sarin incident in 1994.]

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