Behind the Dissolution of the Unification Church: Japan’s Communist Party, North Korea, and China
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A chronology of the facts proving that Communist agencies and countries worked to destroy the religious movement.
May 6, 2025
On March 25, 2025, the Tokyo District Court ordered, in first degree, the dissolution of the Unification Church (now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, but still often referred to with the old name). This was the culmination of efforts by anti-Unification-Church lawyers that started some forty years ago. These lawyers were politically motivated, and their aim was to destroy the Unification Church because of its successful anti-Communist activities. North Korea and (later) China were also connected to these efforts.
This is not a conspiracy theory. It is based on facts and documents, unearthed by Japanese investigative journalist Masumi Fukuda, on whose work I rely in this article, and others. To understand what happened and why, a chronology is necessary.
1968: Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, creates the International Federation for Victory Over Communism (IFVOC). Those of my generation would immediately recognize the significance of the date. 1968 was the year of the decisive Communist offensive in the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union’s “special military operation” to crush the “Prague Spring” under the wheels of tanks, some of the worse excesses of the Cultural Revolution in China, North Korea’s increasingly aggressive moves against South Korea, and left-wing students’ revolt around the world, from the United States to Japan.
They were so strong in continental Europe that to this date the simple mention of “1968” evokes a time when a Communist takeover of countries such as Italy or France was a real possibility. The creation by Reverend Moon of an ambitious, global anti-Communist organization should be understood within this context. Its Japanese branch, from the beginning, was especially active, and gradually grew to play a key role in defeating Communist and “fellow traveler” candidates in key elections.
1978: One crucial local election is held for the position of governor of Kyoto. Left-wing governor Torazo Ninagawa has been in office for 28 years, but the leftist rule is at risk of coming to an end. Japan’s Communist Party mobilizes for preventing this from happening. Eventually, IFVOC volunteers are crucial for defeating the Communist-backed candidate and secure a victory for the candidate of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, Yukio Hayashida. After the Kyoto elections, Communist Party Chairperson Kenji Miyamoto states that, “The fight against IFVOC is serious. It is necessary to make it a total fight in the areas of mass struggle, ideology, Parliament, and law.” He adds that the “extermination of IFVOC” is “a sacred battle” that would be recorded in the history and remembered by future generations (“Akahata” [Red Flag: the newspaper of the Communist Party], June 8, 1978].
1978: For a variety of reasons, Japan had become in the 1970s what international scholars have called a “spy heaven,” with record numbers of Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean agents active in the country. There were no adequate legal tools to combat espionage. The Liberal Democratic Party had started proposing anti-espionage measures at the end of the 1950s. They had been strongly opposed by the largest left-leaning media and by the powerful national associations of lawyers. They were dominated by leftists and had a post-World-War-II tradition of anti-Americanism and anti-militarism. Some Communist and Socialist politicians cooperated with the Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean intelligence services and received funds from them. As scandals continue to emerge, in 1978 the IFVOC launches the National Campaign for Thirty Million Signatures for the Enactment of the Anti-Espionage Law. In 1979, the IFVOC participates in the creation of the National Council for the Promotion of the Enactment of the Anti-Espionage Law.
1979: Top Soviet spy in Japan Stanislav Levchenko defects to the U.S. and testifies that prominent Japanese Communist and Socialist politicians are paid Soviet agents. His revelations create an immense scandal in Japan. After the fall of the Soviet Union, documents in the Soviet archives will confirm that Levchenko’s revelations were accurate.
1981: The Socialist Party and other leftist groups promote the Social Culture Center of Law to organize left-wing lawyers who should work to counter the growing anti-leftist feelings in the country. Attorneys Yasushi Higashizawa and Hiroshi Yamaguchi are among the members.
1983: The Socialist Party tries to discredit Levchenko by claiming that his revelations derive from a conspiracy where the CIA cooperated with the IFVOC. As a result, the IFVOC sues the Socialist Party. The case lasts for eleven years and concludes in 1994 with the victory of the IFVOC. The Socialist Party is recognized as guilty of defamation and has to pay two million yen to the IFVOC. One of the attorneys of the Socialist Party in the case is Hiroshi Yamaguchi.
1986: The Countermeasures Committee against Unification Church is established within the Social Culture Center of Law. The Committee plays a crucial role in popularizing the label “spiritual sales” to designate the sale by members of the Unification Church of miniature pagodas, vases, seals, and other artifacts supposed to bring good luck at prices higher than their intrinsic value. Later, donations to the Church will also be called “spiritual sales.” While ostensibly aimed at supporting the “victims” of the “spiritual sales,” minutes of the Social Culture Center of Law meetings unearthed by Masumi Fukuda show that the real aim is to hit IFVOC and its promotion of the Anti-Espionage Law. “The huge amount of money obtained from the Spiritual Sales,” the minutes say, “is used for political funds and campaign funds for IFVOC’s activities to promote the enactment of the Anti-Espionage Law.”
1987 (January): Eleven North Koreans manage to escape to Japan and seek asylum there. A campaign to have them repatriated to North Korea (where they would probably be executed) is launched by the General Association of Korean Residents, an organization with ties to North Korea’s intelligence. The General Association’s lawyer is Yasushi Higashizawa.
1987 (January 31): Attorney Hiroshi Yamaguchi, writing in “Center News,” the official magazine of the Social Culture Center of Law, states that, “The money obtained from spiritual sales is used to finance the Unification Church and IFVOC’s campaign to enact the Anti-Espionage Law… the members of the Social Culture Center of Law, who have been working on the issue of the spiritual sales, have decided to join together to form a Lawyer’s Network for Victims of Spiritual Sales (tentative name). I would like to take this opportunity to call on our members to participate.” (Note that no evidence ever surfaced that money from the so-called “spiritual sales” was used to support IFVOC).
1987 (February): The foundation of the Lawyers’ Network for Victims of Spiritual Sales (LNVSS) is announced to the media by attorneys Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Yasushi Higashizawa, and Kazuo Ito.
1987 (February 20): In the organ of the Socialist Party, “Shakai Shimpo,” attorney Hiroshi Yamaguchi said: “Ultimately, we would like to request the Ministry of Education to revoke the authorization of the [Unification Church as a] religious corporation.”
1987 (May): The National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (NNLASS) is established as the successor of the LVNSS, with attorney Hiroshi Yamaguchi as Secretary General.
1994: The Japanese government rejects a first request by the NNLASS to dissolve the Unification Church.
1997: The People’s Republic of China bans the Unification Church.
1998: The Japanese government rejects a second request by the NNLASS to dissolve the Unification Church.
2000: China establishes the China Anti-Xie-Jiao Association, which today claims to be the largest anti-cult association in the world. The Association is under the control of the Chinese Communist Party through the United Front. One of the targets of its propaganda is the Unification Church. Official Chinese documents in English translate “xie jiao” as “cults.”
However, the translation is somewhat anachronistic, as “xie jiao” is a Chinese legal and social category introduced in 7th century CE to designate “religious organizations promoting heterodox teachings,” with “heterodox” interpreted as “hostile to the government.”
2012: After a third request to dissolve the Unification Church has been rejected, the NNLASS sues the Japanese government. The NNLASS will lose the case.
2022: The NNLASS launches a new campaign for the dissolution of the Unification Church after the assassination of Shinzo Abe. This time, it will be successful.
2022 (November 6): The “Sunday Mainichi” magazine features a conversation on the Unification Church between journalist Soichiro Tahara and Communist Party Chairperson Kazuo Shii. Tahara says, “This is a final war against the Unification Church for the Communist Party.” Shii answers, “The fight went on for a long time,” recalling IFVOC’s role in the Kyoto local elections of 1978. He adds, “This time we will never give up until we will win.”
2025 (March 25): The Tokyo District Court pronounces, in first degree, the dissolution of the Unification Church.
2025 (April 18): The China Anti-Xie-Jiao Association releases a statement expressing its satisfaction that the Unification Church has been dissolved as it is “a tool of the anti-Communist ideology.” It praises the work of the NNLASS in “agitating the public opinion” and expresses the hope that Japan will also act against other “cults” and other countries will follow the Japanese example.
These are the plain facts. Readers may decide for themselves whether that Communist agencies and countries worked for the dissolution of the Unification Church because of its promotion of an “anti-Communist ideology” is just a conspiracy theory.
Source: bitterwinter.org
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