Japan Education Ministry to Impose Fine on Unification Church
Jiji Press, Japan/September 6, 2023
Tokyo --The Japanese education ministry has decided to impose a civil fine on the religious group known as the Unification Church for failing to answer questions submitted by the ministry, officials said Wednesday.
The Religious Juridical Persons Council, an advisory panel to the education minister, Wednesday gave the go-ahead to impose the fine on the controversial religious group, officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
As early as Thursday, the ministry plans to ask Tokyo District Court to impose the fine on the Unification Church.
The Unification Church has failed to report back on over 100 subjects, or around 20 pct of all the questions asked by the ministry, Education Minister Keiko Nagaoka told a meeting of the council.
Suspecting that some practices of the Unification Church meet conditions allowing the ministry to ask a court to issue a dissolution order, such as law violations, the ministry has exercised its right to question the religious group on seven occasions since November last year.
