Kishida: "Will Submit Law to Aid Unification Church Victims and Ban Malicious Donation Solicitation"

Mentioning Meeting with Unification Church Victims, "A Heart-Wrenching Feeling"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on the 8th that he will promptly submit a new bill to the National Diet aimed at providing relief to victims of the Unification Church (Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) and prohibiting malicious solicitation of donations.

According to Japanese media such as NHK, Prime Minister Kishida made this announcement to reporters after holding a meeting at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in the afternoon with Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the coalition partner Komeito Party.

Kishida stated that he plans to submit the bill during the current extraordinary Diet session and emphasized, "I will make every effort to ensure the bill is passed early with cooperation from both ruling and opposition parties."

Referring to his meeting with victims of the Unification Church, he said, "Hearing their harrowing experiences firsthand was heart-wrenching as a politician."

Kishida explained that he and Komeito have agreed to include in the new bill provisions such as ▲ prohibition of malicious solicitation of donations ▲ cancellation and compensation for donations made under malicious solicitation ▲ relief for affected children and spouses.

The Unification Church has been controversial in Japan for practices such as the so-called "spiritual sales" (靈感商法), where ordinary items are sold at exorbitant prices by convincing people that purchasing them can remove evil spirits.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.