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Japan Supreme Court Upholds Dissolution of Unification Church
Confirmed
In Short: The Supreme Court of Japan has upheld lower court rulings to dissolve the controversial Unification Church, citing its aggressive donation practices as harmful to public welfare.
The Supreme Court of Japan has upheld the dissolution of the Unification Church, a decision made by the Tokyo High Court earlier this year. The court found that the group's long-term solicitation of donations caused significant financial and psychological harm to many individuals, warranting its dissolution under the Religious Corporations Act.
The ruling comes after the Unification Church filed a special appeal, which was rejected by the Supreme Court in May. The court also dismissed the group's request to remove Justice Masami Okino from the case, citing her past remarks about the organization.
The Tokyo District Court initially issued the dissolution order in March last year, following a long history of the group's aggressive donation tactics. The court ruled that the damages suffered by victims of the church's donation practices between 1973 and 2016 amounted to about 7.4 billion yen (S$59 million).
This marks the first case in Japan where a religious group has been ordered to disband for violating the Civil Code, setting a precedent for future legal actions against such organizations.
Background
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered to the west by the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk in the north, and the East China Sea in the south.
Tokyo High Court is a high court in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The Intellectual Property High Court is a special branch of Tokyo High Court.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- The Supreme Court has upheld lower court rulings ordering the dissolution of the controversial religious group known as the Unification Church, rejecting a special appeal filed by the organization.
- The Tokyo District Court issued the dissolution order in March last year, and the Tokyo High Court dismissed an appeal filed by the group in March this year.
- The Supreme Court found that the Unification Church’s continued solicitation of donations over long periods hurt many people financially and psychologically, and ruled that the group clearly committed acts that…
- In May, the Supreme Court rejected the religious group’s request to remove Justice Masami Okino from the case, citing her past remarks about the group.
- TOKYO – Japan’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court order urging the controversial religious group Unification Church to disband, calling it “necessary and inevitable” after decades of its aggressive…
- The court said its dissolution was warranted in the absence of effective measures to stop the group’s practice of soliciting massive donations by urging followers to meet unachievable targets.
- The ruling came after the group, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, appealed against the dissolution order issued by the Tokyo High Court in March.
- At the time, the high court ruled that damages suffered by victims of the church’s donation practice between March 1973 and June 2016 totalled about 7.4 billion yen (S$59 million).