A court in Tokyo on Tuesday ordered the Japanese branch of the Unification Church to disband, three years after it came under scrutiny following the assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
The shooting of Mr. Abe by a man with a grudge against the church led to revelations that the fringe religious group had pushed members into financial hardship to fund its donations to conservative politicians.
In a ruling that was widely expected but unusual in its severity, the court agreed to a government request to strip the church of its legal status to exist, saying that it had violated laws governing religious activities. The education ministry, which has oversight of religious groups, requested in October 2023 that the church be disbanded after determining that it forced members to make donations and buy religious goods.
The ministry collected the testimonies of some 1,550 former members who claimed to have suffered financial damages of 20.4 billion yen, or $140 million. The church, known for its mass weddings, was founded in South Korea by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who died in 2012. It has branches in scores of countries.
Attention has fallen on the church since the killing of Mr. Abe, who was gunned down on a street during a campaign speech. The suspect claimed that the church had bankrupted his family by forcing his mother, a member, to turn over her life savings.
Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested at the scene, has admitted to the July 2022 shooting, though he is still awaiting trial. After the assassination, it emerged that Mr. Yamagami blamed Mr. Abe, whom he perceived as supporting the church.
The revelation set off a scramble by conservative lawmakers seeking to distance themselves from the church, which has been a major political donor.
In an internal audit, the governing Liberal Democratic Party found that some 180 of its elected lawmakers, or almost half of its entire membership in Japan’s Parliament, either accepted donations or attended events held by the church and related organizations. However, the party’s leadership has maintained that it had no organizational ties to the religious group.
With Tuesday’s court decision, the government will now shift its efforts to “giving the maximum amount of support to the victims,” Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief government spokesman, told reporters.
The church, which claimed some 600,000 members in Japan, is reported by local news media to have assets worth an estimated 110 billion yen. Some of that will likely be claimed by a court-appointed liquidator for use in compensating former members.
In a statement, the church, which changed its name in 2015 to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, said it planned to appeal the decision. Since the murder of Mr. Abe, it said members’ human rights have been violated and “inaccurate views of us have spread” in the media and on social media.
In recent history, Japan has disbanded two other religious groups. One of them was Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult behind the deadly sarin gas attack on Tokyo subways in 1995. It was ordered to be broken up a year later.
The Unification Church has faced anger from former members in the past. In 2009, it agreed to improve its compliance with laws governing the conduct of religious groups. On Tuesday, the court cited the church’s failure to mend its ways as a reason for ordering its dissolution.
“It is difficult to expect improvements after the group failed to improve following the guidance on compliance, and a situation has been allowed to continue that cannot be overlooked,” the head judge, Kenya Suzuki, was quoted as saying by local media.
An expert on new religions said the full extent of the hardships and heartbreak caused by the church remains unknown. He said many former members cannot come forward for fear of retribution against themselves or their families.
“The testimonies collected by the education ministry are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Hotaka Tsukada, a professor at Bunkyo University who specializes in religion in society. “Many are still unable to speak out.”
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