Innocent Made into Villain by Activist Lawyers

Activist leftwing lawyers who swayed Japanese authorities managed to make innocent religious minority into perpetrators in Abe assassination case

Scapegoated: The Family Federation and Japan’s Political Left

1st part of a speech by Steinar Murud, head of the Family Federation in Norway 2008-2022 and currently the federation’s representative on Council for Religious and Life Stance Communities in Oslo, given on 12^th June 2025 in the House of Literature in Oslo, at a conference titled “Freedom of Religion Under Pressure – Experiences from Three Religious Communities”. Three faith communities in Norway joined forces to highlight the dehumanizing state persecution they face in Iran, Pakistan, and Japan. The event was organized by the Baha’i community, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The Family Federation is active in most democratic countries, including Japan, where we have approximately 600,000 members. Our presence in Japan spans over 65 years, during which we have experienced significant growth. However, powerful forces have consistently worked against us, and this opposition intensified following the tragic incident on 8^th July 2022, when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while delivering a speech.

The perpetrator was a young man who believed that Abe supported the Family Federation. He harbored deep resentment toward our organization, rooted in personal grievances – his mother became a member nearly 30 years ago and made substantial financial contributions.

The specifics of his family background raise several questions, and his deeper motives remain unclear. Reports suggest he held communist sympathies and spoke of initiating a revolution. Incredibly, a member of the Japanese Red Army even produced a film about him, portraying him as a hero; the film was shown in Japanese cinemas.

On 19^th January 2024, renowned sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne stated that key facts about the assassin had been largely ignored by the media, resulting in a distorted public understanding of the event.

What followed was a wave of harassment, spearheaded by a legal network known as NNLASS, composed of left-leaning lawyers who frequently file lawsuits against religious organizations. Just days after the assassination, they held a press conference in which they labeled the Family Federation as an antisocial group and called for its dissolution.

This was highly unethical. Instead of leaving it up to the police to carry out a thorough investigation, the lawyers – just days after the assassination – designated a scapegoat – the very organization they’d been trying to get dissolved since 40 years.

This marked the beginning of an orchestrated campaign of defamation and pressure. On 10^th May 2023, Professor Kevin M. Doak of Georgetown University, an expert in East Asian studies, stated in an interview with Sekai Nippo that Japanese communists were exploiting Abe’s assassination to “smear the former Unification Church and the LDP”, Japan’s ruling party.

The Family Federation, formerly known as the Unification Church, thus became entangled in a political struggle. The response to the assassination was startlingly unorthodox: instead of focusing scrutiny on the assassin, the media redirected public attention toward the Family Federation.

On 4^th November 2022, Thierry Valle, head of the French religious freedom organization CAP-LC, addressed the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva. He noted that Japan’s left-leaning media had distorted the narrative by adopting the assassin’s justification and portraying him as the victim – while casting the Family Federation as the perpetrator, thereby disregarding numerous relevant factors.

The media played a central role in fueling this narrative. Coverage of the NNLASS press conference was uncritical, amplifying the lawyers’ claims and shaping public opinion accordingly. It is well known that the political left in Japan has long opposed the Family Federation.

In an interview published on 22^nd November 2022, in the communist newspaper Shimbun Akahata, Kazuo Shii, former chairman of the Japanese Communist Party, was asked: “From the Communist Party’s point of view, is this the final war against the Family Federation?” He responded affirmatively, stating that the struggle had been ongoing since at least a gubernatorial election in 1978.

Indeed, as far back as the 1960s, our movement was not only involved in religious activities but also actively opposed communism. During a time of radicalization across Japanese universities, the International Federation for Victory over Communism was founded by Sun Myung Moon and members of the Family Federation. It was a separate organization but gained widespread support, amassing three million members. Through public information campaigns, the movement contributed to communist defeats in several local elections.

This longstanding opposition has made the Communist Party and other left-wing groups our persistent adversaries. After the Abe assassination, pressure intensified. At the initial press conference, the NNLASS lawyers demanded the dissolution of the Family Federation and eventually brought this demand to the Prime Minister. However, he initially responded that an organization cannot be dissolved without a criminal conviction. While there have been civil lawsuits – mostly related to donations and initiated by activist lawyers – such cases do not warrant the dissolution of a religious body.

Importantly, dissolution in Japan is not merely the removal of status as a religious corporation. It would involve the confiscation of assets and properties and could severely restrict our ability to pass on our faith to future generations.

On 18^th October 2023, then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated that the Family Federation could not be dissolved, as neither the organization nor its legal representatives had committed any criminal acts.

However, the very next day, following intense media and political pressure, he reversed his position. He announced that civil disputes could also be grounds for dissolution. What he did was essentially changing the law – and not only that – he also gave it retroactive effect. This was something he did not have the authority to do alone, but he managed to push it through. This marked a significant governmental overreach. […]

One key figure in this campaign was Minister Taro Kono, who had long been critical of the Family Federation. He initiated the formation of an “investigative committee” to examine the organization. This committee lacked impartiality, as it included four outspoken opponents of the Family Federation, among them Masaki Kito, a leading figure in the NNLASS network. No one with a balanced or supportive view of the Family Federation was included.

Predictably, the committee’s findings were negative and contributed to further political pressure. The report deeply influenced the Prime Minister and other policymakers, reinforcing an already skewed narrative.

To be continued. Part 2 coming soon.

Featured image above: Steinar Murud delivering his message at the House of Literature in Oslo on 12th June 2025. Photo: David Toresen

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