Yes I agree. There seems to be a lot of sympathy for him and the desperation he must have felt. I wonder if they will put him on death row.Feels kind of surreal really, like this terrible political assassination has been "effective" according to the killer's motives.
Death sentences are usually passed in cases of multiple murders, although there have been some cases where individuals who committed a single murder have been sentenced to death and executed, such as those involving torture, or kidnapping with a demand for ransom. (Source)
I suspect that most of them never cared about such issues but have spoken against them to return the favour to the church.
This month, the cover of the weekly Japanese magazine SPA! was a large feature on the cult of hero worship for Tetsuya Yamagami, the 42-year-old man who shot Abe on July 8. There are now swooning internet fans known as "Yamagami Girls" and a surprising outpouring of sympathy for him. Cash, gifts, and food have been sent to him in jail from supporters across the nation. There's even an online petition calling for a reduced sentence for Yamagami that has garnered thousands of signatures. The eight-page article in SPA! about the worship of Yamagami is a magnum opus on the complicated factors that have played into the elevation of the assassin from "terrorist" to "noble vigilante" by some Japanese nationals.
Clearly the time has come to tap on the brakes–public outrage now threatens to reach the level of inviting discrimination and hate crimes directed at Church members. The fundamental problem with the Unification Church in Japan is not that it has been allowed to exist, but rather that it maintained a cozy relationship with the ruling party that protected it from proper scrutiny and regulation. In other words, the Church was able to become a quiet monster within Japanese society only because it was used as a source of financing and election-time manpower by rightwing politicians. The police and the mainstream media compounded the problem by failing to fulfill their roles as guardians of public welfare. This remained the case for decades, until Tetsuya Yamagami and his little homemade shotgun blew the lid off of the long-suppressed story.
Same with my mom. Sometimes I am grateful for the stain of religion in society. It is much like a psychological crutch that keeps people hooked on delusions of grandeur when they are divorced from reality. You can not talk sense into them anymore when they become bible-beaters.Being 72 , I have a lot of friends over 65. I'm always amazed how some become super religious later in life , who had no real interest in religion when they were younger. I get the feeling some of it has to do with death just around the corner , they plan to get right with the Lord. I had it shoved down my throat by my mom , with Sunday school , youth fellowship , regular church until I turned 18 and left home. I tried joining the church during my 40's mid-life crisis , but it went super political so I left. I once was kicked out of my rental apartment because the landlord decided that God & Jesus would pay his mortgage. I often wonder if I'm on my death bed , I will change my mind about religion. My sister seems to be mentally hanging by a thread and it seems religion allows her to handle lifes problems , so I guess in some cases it does good.
Japanese opposition parties on Wednesday stepped up their offensive against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has been involved in several controversies, including his ruling party's suspicious ties with the dubious Unification Church and apparent favoritism toward his son. During the first full-fledged parliamentary debate since Kishida reshuffled his cabinet in August, the premier refused a call by the opposition bloc to replace a cabinet member with questionable ties to the religious group. Kishida claimed that the recent appointment of his eldest son, a former employee of Japan's Mitsui & Co in his 30s, as an executive secretary to the prime minister was decided based on the idea of "putting the right person in the right place."
It is unusual for a lawmaker to direct a question to a lower house speaker, who plays a neutral role in the chamber. Before he became speaker, Hosoda was head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, later led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. On Wednesday, Izumi claimed the faction had forged deep relations with the Unification Church. "Can you answer my question, speaker? If you cannot do that, please answer by a gesture," Izumi said, leading to heckling in the chamber. Hosoda did not respond, while LDP lawmaker Shunichi Yamaguchi, chair of the lower house's Committee on Rules and Administration, cautioned Izumi on Thursday through an opposition party member against "disrespecting" the speaker.
At the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, which hosted the event, Ogawa, who uses a pseudonym to protect her real identity, relayed her traumatic experiences as a so-called second-generation church believer. Born and raised in the church, founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon and often labeled by critics as a cult, Ogawa said that after graduating from high school, she was sexually harassed by a public minister during a retreat. The woman said that at the retreat, she was also told she was "possessed by an evil spirit" and subsequently sent to a facility in South Korea for a supposed exorcism. Ogawa said the contradictory practices of the church and her witnessing other believers suffer mental breakdowns impacted her own stability, leading to her being hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. An emotional Ogawa also said she grew up in financial difficulty, with her parents making frequent donations to the church. She said her family confiscated 2 million yen ($14,000) that she had saved by working a part-time job, adding the money has not been returned.
Hiroshi Yamaguchi, who heads the lawyers' network, said at a news conference that a dissolution order against the Unification Church would be significant because it will "show publicly and clearly that the church has committed antisocial activities." Under such an order, a religious corporation can continue to work as a religious organization but is ineligible for tax benefits, Yamaguchi said. The network said the church, while soliciting large donations from its followers and conducting missionary outreach while keeping its identity a secret, committed "many and serious" violations of property and other rights. However, the central government has maintained a cautious stance on a dissolution order, citing religious freedom. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at an extraordinary Diet session that such an order "takes away a status of religious corporation and is an extremely severe measure."
I do not believe this will meet with success, but here's hoping for the best: the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (全国霊感商法対策弁護士連絡会) asked the justice minister to dissolve the Unification Church for violating the property rights of its followers and keeping its identity a secret while engaging in fund-raising and missionary outreach. Such orders were issued twice in the past against other religious corporations following legal violations
The problem I see with that is that it will just go underground, maybe be reformed under another name, and just continue what its doing. At least with it out in the open now it will have some eyes on it.
I'm afraid that the media will sooner or later focus on other issues, and the ruling party will be back to business as usual. Outlawing them would send a clear signal and allow law enforcement to react to any transgression. Should freedom of religion be used as a pretext to commit "anti-social activities", a term commonly used to describe underworld dealings?
But would that even work? If you outlaw the UC and they just reform as DNUC (Definitely Not the Unification Church) they can continue anyway. Sure, the whole thing could be done again but to what end? You would need to really make sure the organization is dismantled for good and that, I think, would be very difficult to do being as it is spread across different countries and even within Japan could probably easily go to ground. Its not a company or Yakuza family where you can cut off the head and pretty much be assured that it will die off. We are dealing with a religion/cult that has followers that really believe in it, that will be hard to squash.
What I was trying to imply, perhaps poorly, was not that they should not be held responsible, but that they should be held responsible and continue to be. They did illegal things, its not like new laws are needed to go after them for those things and make sure there is appropriate oversight and safeguards in place to prevent future abuses.
They probably would, but they'd be a lot more circumspect about their behaviour - we don't get much trouble from Aum there days. It would also send a strong message to other dodgy religions in Japan.They would just go underground like they did in Nagasaki.
Is Aum still a thing? Even if it is, I imagine it's completely different without Asahara.They probably would, but they'd be a lot more circumspect about their behaviour - we don't get much trouble from Aum there days. It would also send a strong message to other dodgy religions in Japan.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday instructed his culture minister to launch an investigation into the Unification Church, a religious group that has come under the spotlight in Japan for its links with the ruling party and the huge donations it has encouraged followers to make.