<figure id="attachment_263408" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-263408" style="width: 1644px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c34ea77d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/09/b13d300c2d0a49328ae23c878e65e33b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-263408" class="wp-caption-text">Junko Sakurada participated in a &#8220;joint wedding ceremony&#8221; of the Unification Church. It was a big topic of conversation at the time, but&#8230; (1992)</figcaption></figure>
 Toshio Ishikawa, entertainment reporter, reports on the entertainment industry at &#8230;&#8230;
 With the sudden death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the issue of the former Unification Church has come back into the spotlight. A consumer panel has been set up to discuss the psychic and other unscrupulous business practices.
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 The Consumer Affairs Agency has convened university professors and lawyers who have long appealed for help for victims to hear their opinions. The former Unification Church&#8217;s psychic business has already been a major problem for more than 30 years, with singer Junko Sakurada, who participated in a joint wedding ceremony in Korea as a member of its billboard, and gymnastics Olympian Hiroko Yamazaki, among others, making headlines.
 This time, many members of the Diet, not entertainers, but members of the former Unification Church, who attended meetings and events of the organization, gave speeches, and even donated money, have appeared and become the talk of the town. It is surprising to learn that both Diet members and local lawmakers had received a great deal of support for their elections, mainly from followers of the former church, including securing votes, making phone calls, putting up posters, and even serving as campaign car drivers.
 We understand the candidates&#8217; desire for even a single vote, but they must have been well aware of the methods by which they had been gathering followers and getting them to donate large sums of money. But most of the council members whose names were mentioned.
 I didn&#8217;t know.
 and so on. In addition
 I will not associate with them in the future.
 Most of the politicians say, &#8220;I will not associate with them in the future. Freedom of religion is recognized, and it is not unnatural to have contact with people of other religions. But, in spite of this, they still say, &#8220;What&#8217;s wrong and what&#8217;s wrong with it?
 &#8220;What is wrong with it and what is wrong with it?
 No politician can clearly say, &#8220;What is wrong and what is wrong with it? They simply say
 &#8220;I will never have contact with them again.
 I think it is the politicians who have continued to use the former Unification Church as a tool.
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 Looking at the politicians who have continued to use the former Unification Church, one wonders about the &#8220;resolve&#8221; of the late Hidetada Aizawa, chairman of the Sun Music group to which Mr. Sakurada belonged, who &#8220;took&#8221; Mr. Sakurada from the church even though he had raised him with his own hands. Mr. Hidetada is now happily married.
 Mr. Sakurada may be happily married now, but it is true that he wanted to return to show business about 10 years ago.
 She said, &#8220;I can&#8217;t work in the entertainment business.&#8221;
 Ms. Sakurada confided to Mr. Aizawa, who made her leave the entertainment industry, that she wanted to work again. At the time, Ms. Sakurada&#8217;s home in Tokyo was a church for former members of the Unification Church.
 There were many church members coming and going.&#8221;
 A friend of mine who lived in the same apartment told me, &#8220;There were a lot of church members coming and going.
 Mr. Aizawa refused to allow her to return to show business, but he was not abandoning his beloved celebrity whom he had made a star. He had appointed a company executive as the person in charge of listening to Ms. Sakurada&#8217;s advice.
 Moreover, Mr. Aizawa bought a 2 million yen vase from Ms. Sakurada&#8217;s relatives. I guess he was willing to do anything for her.
 He said, &#8220;From the time she came to our house, Junko was so pure. I bought it for her.
 I bought it for her,&#8221; Aizawa told us. I&#8217;m sure that Mr. Aizawa&#8217;s feelings are completely different from those of many victims who feel cheated. But in his heart of hearts, he must have felt that psychic business equals a vicious business practice.
 But this was only a personal matter, and Mr. Sakurada did not approve of his return to the entertainment industry at all. It is said that Mr. Aizawa&#8217;s last will and testament strictly stated, &#8220;As long as I am in the Unification Church, I will never be involved in production.
 Therefore, Sun Music was not involved in any way when she held a concert at the Ginza Hakuhinkan Theater after Mr. Aizawa&#8217;s death, or when she held an event to launch her new songs.
 The president of the production company, who is not a politician, has kept a close eye on the actions of the former Unification Church to make sure that no one was harmed. This was probably out of a sense of crisis that if Mr. Sakurada continued his entertainment activities, he would become a poster child for the Unification Church and cause more damage.
 And yet, the politicians have continued to use the former Unification Church to their own satisfaction as a way to &#8220;get accepted.
 Entertainment companies are also interest groups. If Mr. Sakurada had not been allowed to retire, or if he had been allowed to return to work, they would have generated hundreds of millions of yen in profits. Nevertheless, Mr. Aizawa&#8217;s determination to put an end to what was wrong with the situation should be emulated by today&#8217;s politicians.

 Born in Tokyo in 1946. He has a unique career path from Shochiku's advertising department to a reporter for a women's magazine to an entertainment reporter. He has appeared on "The Wide" and "Information Live Miyaneya" (both on Nippon Television Network Corporation), and currently appears regularly on "Mentai Wide" (Fukuoka Broadcasting System), "Su Matan" (Yomiuri TV), and Rainbow Town FM.

 Toshio Ishikawa (Entertainment Reporter)

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