<figure id="attachment_263907" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-263907" style="width: 5269px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b06db02c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/09/aflo_193141800.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-263907" class="wp-caption-text">LDP Secretary General Mogi, who &#8220;inspected&#8221; the LDP&#8217;s relationship with the Unification Church and announced&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
 He said, &#8220;We take the results very seriously. We will frankly reflect on the results and ensure within the party that we will have no relations whatsoever with the former Unification Church in the future.&#8221;
 On September 8, the LDP conducted a survey of its members and revealed that 179 Diet members had contact with the so-called Unification Church. Of these, 121 have disclosed their names.
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 The survey included eight items, and in addition to Yoshiyuki Inoue, a member of the House of Councillors, who is considered to have the &#8220;strongest&#8221; contacts with the Unification Church, the survey also revealed the name of Hiroaki Saito, a member of the House of Representatives, who has been asked to support an election or who has received organizational support.
 Inoue was an endorsed member of the Unification Church, but recently resigned his membership in a hurry after Secretary General Toshimitsu Mogi announced that he would &#8220;let members who cannot break off relations with the Unification Church leave the party. Although not much has been reported about Mr. Saito, it is said that he had campaign volunteers come to support him and make &#8220;phone calls&#8221; to him.
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 As Secretary General Mogi emphasized, this was not a &#8220;survey&#8221; by the party, but rather a self-reported questionnaire. Mr. Inoue had no choice but to answer honestly because his campaign video had already been publicized, but I thought Mr. Saito did a good job of being honest himself. There are many more members of the Diet who were supported by their followers as volunteer campaign workers.
 There are even more &#8220;black&#8221; legislators who used believers as their secretaries, but since they were not included in the eight items, they did not answer the question. The LDP has no intention of seriously trying to clarify the situation. It is a self-report, so even if it is discovered after the survey is completed, the LDP will take responsibility for it.
 (TV station reporter) Because of his neutral position as speaker of the House of Representatives, Hiroyuki Hosoda was excluded from the survey because he had left the LDP party. Mr. Hosoda is such a zookeeper that he serves as honorary chairman of the &#8220;Parliamentarians for World Peace Union,&#8221; an affiliate of the Unification Church. He has never once answered a question about his relationship with the Unification Church, even though he has been asked about it many times by reporters and the media. There seems to be a deeper problem.
 Mr. Hosoda has never spoken out, probably to protect former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was the head of the Seiwa-kai. Mr. Abe was the head of the Seiwa-kai, but before that, Mr. Hosoda was the head. With many reports and testimonies from former lawmakers that Mr. Abe was distributing organizational votes for the Unification Church, Mr. Hosoda is a key person who would know what was going on.
 If it came to light that the LDP was systematically involved, Mr. Abe&#8217;s state funeral would draw public outrage and be a major blow to the LDP. That is why the LDP is determined not to let the Seiwa-kai, the &#8220;main body&#8221; of the LDP, get involved in this matter.
 LDP Secretary General Mogi said, &#8220;If I get involved with the Unification Church, I will leave the party. This is probably because he is aware that the Unification Church has become such a social problem with its psychic sales methods and high donations that it must part ways with them. The government is even promoting measures to combat such psychic sales, with Taro Kono, minister in charge of consumer affairs, saying, &#8220;We should not be involved in such a cult.
 What is the government&#8217;s stance on Mr. Abe sending messages to an organization affiliated with a cult that he should not be involved with? The government is not investigating the matter as a party, not allowing Mr. Hosoda to testify, and not taking a scalpel to the Seiwa-kai. It could be said that all of this is an &#8220;appeal&#8221; to protect Mr. Abe and to ensure that the funeral takes place.
 Once the funeral is over, the government will no longer need to convince the public. I can&#8217;t help but feel that the &#8220;Unification Church issue&#8221; will be toned down in one fell swoop.

 Representative Photo/Reuters/Afro

 The LDP has announced the results of its "inspection" of the relationship between the Unification Church and lawmakers. However, the results of the "lenient" investigation, which was conducted only on members of the LDP, have already aroused suspicion from the public...

Unification Church Issue: LDP also forced to end Abe’s “Seiwa-kai Taboo” without mentioning it.

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