PRESS CONFERENCE

Lawyers representing plaintiffs seeking damages from the church
Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Chief Lawyer at Secretariat, Lawyers from Across Japan for the Victims of the Unification Church
Masaki Kito, Deputy Lead Lawyers & Katsuomi Abe, Deputy Chief Lawyer at Secretariat

12:00-13:00 Friday, March 28, 2025
Language: The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation. 

Victims of the Unification Church

In a historic decision on Tuesday, a Tokyo District Court ordered the disbanding of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church followed a government investigation that found the church had forced 1,550 members to make some 20 billion yen in donations and purchases of religious items. National attention on the church, which was founded in South Korea by the Rev. Song Myung Mun, followed the 2022 murder of the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by a gunman who claimed that the church had driven his family into financial ruin by manipulating his mother into turning over her life savings.

On Thursday, we invited representatives of the church, now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, to come to the FCCJ to tell us their response to the court order and the negative public attention on their organization. Now it's time to hear the other side of the story. The three lawyers who will speak to us represent plaintiffs claiming to be harmed by the church. They will tell us about their next steps: how they will respond if the church appeals, the prospects for winning actual financial compensation and efforts to prevent the church from hiding assets.


How to attend:
Please register at front@fccj.or.jp with your name, the name of your media outlet, and FCCJ membership number. Doors open 15 minutes before the event. Please sign in and giving your name and contact details at the reception.

How to watch online: https://www.youtube.com/c/FCCJchannel/live

How to ask questions: https://forms.gle/twDjS6sYLd1wY4rw9   

TV crew: Please make a reservation at front@fccj.or.jp. Doors open for TV crews only at 30 minutes before the event.

Professional Activities Committee