LDP House of Representatives Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda, “Zubu Photo” with former Unification Church.

LDP House of Representatives Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda, 78, is in the center of the photo above with a big smile on his face. This photo was taken on March 23, 2006, at a meeting hosted by the Women’s Federation for World Peace, an affiliate of the former Unification Church, in Tokyo.

Although Councilor Hosoda’s relationship with the former Unification Church has long been discussed, his only correspondence is in the documents he released on September 29 and October 7.’ Although he mentioned his attendance at the March 2006 meeting of the Women’s Coalition for World Peace in those documents, he did not explain the circumstances or the content of the meeting.

However, the relationship between the two was deeper than just “attending a meeting. A commemorative photo obtained by this magazine clearly shows the close relationship with the cult.

The Women’s Coalition for World Peace is an organization founded by Oyasama Moon Sun Myung Moon and his wife, President Han Hak Kucha. At the meeting, Councilor Hosoda took pictures of some of the bigwigs, who could be considered the top tier of the church. To the right of Councilor Hosoda is then-President Eiji Tokuno of the former Unification Church, and to his left is then-World President Moon Yeon-ah of the Women’s Coalition for World Peace. On the far right is Moriko Hori, Japan President of the United Women for World Peace, and on the far left is Masayoshi Kajikuri, President of the International Union for Victory and the United World Peace Federation, and Chair of UPF Japan. If they were not deeply involved, they would not have had the opportunity to be photographed with these members,” said a former member of the Unification Church.

The photo in question was posted on the Korean version of the website of the Women’s Coalition for World Peace, but it has already been removed.

Why did Senator Hosoda establish such a close relationship with the former Unification Church? Political journalist Koichi Kakutani answers.

Koichi Kakutani, a political journalist, said, “In order to protect the Seiwa-kai and, by extension, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Senator Hosoda probably served as a liaison with the former Unification Church. How many votes of which group would be allocated for the younger members of the Diet, whose election was dubious. Together with former Prime Minister Abe, Senator Hosoda was in a position to decide this. Although it was necessary to maintain ties with the former Unification Church, one of the groups that held votes, it was not possible to bring former Prime Minister Abe to the forefront. Therefore, we surmise that Senator Hosoda was frequently attending meetings.”

It is clear that the successive revelations of relationships between members of the Diet and the former Unification Church have led to a decline in support. However, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (65) has denied that the LDP is investigating new affiliated Diet members, which does not convey a sense of seriousness. This stance is believed to be related to the LDP’s internal political situation.

The LDP’s internal political situation is believed to be behind this stance. There are many possible reasons why Prime Minister Kishida does not seem to be serious about his position, such as the fact that most of the Seiwa Kai members had relations with the former Unification Church, and his own faction is not affected to any great extent. But the biggest of all is the presence of Komeito. In order to prevent the Kōmeitō from being sparked off, Prime Minister Kishida may want to end the issue of the former Unification Church in a hush-hush manner.

Naturally, the opposition parties are ready to continue their pursuit. Chinami Nishimura, acting representative of the Democratic Party of Japan’s Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said of Senator Hosoda.

“Regarding the relationship with the former Unification Church, Chairman Hosoda has not fulfilled his responsibility to provide sufficient explanation. He should speak in his own words as the head of the Office of Public Opinion, not in a ‘paper response.

On October 24, Minister of State for Economic Revitalization Taishiro Yamaguchi resigned after his relationship with Hosoda came to light one after another. Does Mr. Hosoda really think he can get away with this?

From the November 11, 2022 issue of FRIDAY