The Startling Sermon Given by President Tanaka on the 100th Day After the Incident at the Former Unification Church

Today is the 100th day since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe passed away and another day since he was hit by a bullet.

On October 16, Tomihiro Tanaka, 66, president of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (former Unification Church), appeared at a church in the suburbs of Tokyo and began to speak quietly before his congregation.

“On this particular day, he was visiting one of the local churches for Sunday services. I heard that about 50 members of the congregation had rushed to the church because the president was going to give a ‘sermon’ in person. There was no online streaming, and only the congregation that was there was able to listen.” (Church official)

The Sunday service is a place for the congregation to deepen their faith through chants and a sermon that reads the words of the church’s founder, Moon Sung Myung Moon. This magazine obtained audio data from the day of the event. The sermon given by President Tanaka on the 100th anniversary of the shooting of former Prime Minister Abe was astonishing and far removed from the way the world perceives it.

At first, he spoke about the recent media reports, saying, “I receive letters from many of my seniors. Fight them!　Why don’t you get on the TV stations?” After eliciting laughter from the congregation, Tanaka’s talk went to the heart of the matter.

On the day [of the incident], I was shocked to hear that former Prime Minister Abe had been hit by a bullet. Then I was shocked to learn that the suspect’s mother belonged to the church, and even more shocked to learn that the real target was her mother (President Han Huruko). The true (Makoto) parents of humankind were set as the target of the bullets. This is such a historical stain on Japan. We must deeply regret it.

Chairman Tanaka then referred to the family of the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, 42.

Six months before the incident, the suspect sent an e-mail to our church members in Korea. He is a youth director who used to be in Nara. (The suspect) sent the e-mail in the hope that (the church member) was not attending church and that he would have some sympathy for what he was trying to do. However, I learned that (the church member) was still in church. I said, ‘Then that’s it,’ and I haven’t heard from them since then. But the fact that I sent the e-mail means that we had a heart-to-heart communication.

“This (Yamagami) family opens their heart only to that church member. The eldest son committed suicide right after that church member went to Korea. I am convinced that if someone had taken his place and faced the Yamagami family after he went to Korea, this incident would not have happened. With that in mind, although the investigation headquarters has not yet reached a conclusion, I believe that we cannot deny that (the incident) had a great deal to do with our cult’s attitude.”

In other words, Chairman Tanaka is trying to say that the disappearance of someone who understood the Yamagami family led to this incident. However, it is clear to everyone that the mother of the Yamagami suspect made donations of more than 100 million yen to the cult, and that this was the root cause of the family’s collapse.

Encouraging Donations

Throughout the sermon, President Tanaka did not express any remorse for the high donations themselves. In fact, in the latter half of the sermon, he even made the following exhortation.

Please draw a firm blueprint of when your family will achieve “Tempo” and move forward step by step toward that blueprint. Only if you face your family with your life, and only if your family is willing to risk your life to establish a tradition of love, will you be able to achieve victory in the tempo. I urge you to take up the challenge wholeheartedly.”

What on earth does this mean? Journalist Aito Suzuki, who has been pursuing the issue of the former Unification Church for many years, explains.

“Tempo” means “heavenly treasure,” and it is a title given to those who have achieved both the “blessing (solicitation) of 430 families” and the “dismemberment of 430 generations of ancestors. Ancestor Relinquishment is, in essence, a memorial service for ancestors. The first seven generations cost 2.8 million yen, so the 430 generations should cost several tens of millions of yen. Calling for the attainment of tenpō can be seen as, in effect, an invitation to solicit and donate.”

The background to President Tanaka’s statement is related to the financial situation of the Church in Japan after the incident, according to Eight.

“I have not heard of any movement within the church to reflect on the high donations,” he said. I believe that the people who are complaining about the damage are not considered victims, but rather ‘dropouts who have strayed from the path of God. Even at the Sunday service immediately after the incident, President Tanaka cried and said, ‘For us, donation is a very important act. After the incident, finances became tight, and it is said that the money currently pooled by the Japanese church is several tens of billions of yen. It may sound like a lot, but considering the huge remittances to Korea, etc., it is believed that they will experience financial collapse in a few more months. This may be one of the reasons why we have no choice but to call for donations.

This magazine requested an interview with the church regarding Chairman Tanaka’s statement, but was told, “The Sunday service held on October 16 was closed to the press and outsiders.” The answer was, “The corporation is unable to respond to questions about sources of information obtained through improper means.”

The “Liaison Conference of the Ministries and Agencies concerned with the ‘Old Unification Church’ Problem” launched by the government in August received over 2,000 inquiries in September alone, of which 70% were reports of financial problems. Of these, 70% were reported to be financial problems. The church has been loudly calling for reform, but what do the believers think when they see the president himself still calling for large donations?

From the November 18, 2022 issue of FRIDAY