Unification Church Japan President to Resign Soon... Considering Official Apology for Large Donations

"Will Announce His Position Soon at a Press Conference"

Tomihiro Tanaka, 69, President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Japan (formerly known as the Unification Church, hereafter referred to as the Family Federation), is expected to resign soon.

On December 6, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, "President Tanaka will soon hold a press conference to announce his resignation and is also considering formally apologizing for the issue of large donations. Former Vice President Shoichi Hori will succeed him."

Tomihiro Tanaka, President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Japan. Photo by Yonhap News

Tanaka, who took office in 2020, has been responding to criticism and the request for a dissolution order against the organization, which intensified following the shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022.

This is because Tetsuya Yamagami, who killed former Prime Minister Abe, cited the Unification Church as the cause of his family's financial difficulties. Yamagami's mother reportedly made large donations to the Unification Church to the extent that it severely impacted their standard of living, leaving Yamagami and his two siblings in poverty with insufficient food. Yamagami stated that he believed Abe's family, as well as other conservative politicians from the Liberal Democratic Party, had close ties to the Unification Church, and this motivated him to assassinate Abe.

As the controversy grew, the Liberal Democratic Party launched its own internal investigation, which revealed that 179 out of 381 party lawmakers had connections with the Unification Church, fueling the debate over collusion between politics and religion.

After the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's request for a dissolution order was accepted by a district court in March, the Family Federation appealed to the high court, and the appellate hearing concluded last month. In October, a third-party committee was established to review compensation claims submitted by victims of large donations. In this situation, President Tanaka has focused on managing criticism surrounding the organization and overseeing its operations.