<figure id="attachment_260628" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2304px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-260628"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e5d5cff4"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/08/aflo_96768481.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-260628" class="wp-caption-text">The relationship with the &#8220;old Unification Church&#8221; has been exposed one after another. Will this be a repeat of Amari&#8217;s loss of power after losing the election in his district?</figcaption></figure>
The &#8220;close relationship&#8221; between LDP policy chief Kōichi Hagiuda and the former Fusion Church has been attracting attention.
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Shukan Shincho&#8221; (weekly magazine) reported that Koichi Hagiuda, accompanied by Akiko Ikuina, a member of the House of Councillors who ran for the Tokyo electoral district in the recent Upper House election, visited a former Unification Church facility in Tokyo in June. Mr. Ikuina said.
 &#8220;I visited there because I was called. 
 &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know it was a facility affiliated with the former Unification Church,&#8221; he explained.
However, the building at the site had a sign that proudly showed that it was affiliated with the former Unification Church, and some have suggested that the reason that he &#8220;did not know&#8221; may be unreasonable.
At any rate, there is no way that Ikume, a new member of the Diet, could refuse Hagiuda&#8217;s invitation. After all, there is no doubt that Mr. Hagiuda is the protagonist in this issue.
Mr. Hagiuda&#8217;s excuses for his &#8220;relationship&#8221; with the former Unification Church have changed slightly. Initially, he was quoted as saying
 I am not saying that I have a special relationship with them knowingly, but that there may have been people in the local community who were involved in this way.
However, when interviewed at the party headquarters on August 18, he said of the cult
 He recalled, &#8220;I was aware of the social problems that used to exist in the past, but not anymore.
He continued. He continued.
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 He continued, &#8220;After the murder of Prime Minister Abe and the remarks of the Yamagami suspect, the church came into the spotlight, and there are people who are still suffering from various problems. I regret that I did not think enough of them.
However, he did not comment on the dissolution of the relationship with the church, saying, &#8220;I will take appropriate action.
 I will take appropriate measures.
He said nothing more than, &#8220;I will take the appropriate measures.
 Shincho also published the testimony of a Unification Church official who said, &#8220;Mr. Hagiuda is like family. After the problem was discovered, Mr. Hagiuda became defensive, and he ended up explaining things in a way that seemed to throw the church off the scent.
 This has been met with protests from believers who say, &#8220;That&#8217;s too much! and &#8220;This is too much! Hearing this, he probably toned down the tone of his interview on the 18th. In other words, that&#8217;s how close they are.
In the midst of all this, journalist Yoshio Arita made a remark that caught our attention.
On the same day as Hagiuda&#8217;s explanation, Yoshio Arita attended a meeting of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan&#8217;s task force on the damage caused by the former Unification Church, where he told some media that Hagiuda had been involved with the cult for 30 years.
 I have been involved with the church for 30 years.
Arita said that he has been involved with Hagiuda and the church for 30 years. According to Arita
 He has been involved with the cult for 30 years. （The followers are starting to get angry and start talking about it,&#8221; he revealed.
He revealed that he had been involved with the cult for 30 years. He also named former LDP National Public Safety Commission Chairwoman Eriko Yamatani and former Minister of Education Hirofumi Shimomura.
 Mr. Hagiuda said, &#8220;These two are the most involved (with the former Unification Church). Mr. Hagiuda should not run away at this level.
Hagiuda&#8217;s words are becoming clearer by the day.
The deep relationship between Mr. Hagiuda and the former Unification Church is becoming clearer by the day. The next lower house election will be held in three years.
 The next lower house election will be held in three years, and there is a mood of optimism within the LDP that
However, Mr. Hagiuda himself is not so optimistic.
 In fact, Mr. Hagiuda is not very confident about the election. He won the last election by a landslide, but he won a large part of it with the support of various groups. He knows this, so the moment rumors began to circulate that the opposition party was fielding a new female candidate in the last lower house election, he called everyone and asked, &#8216;Who is it? and they were all in an uproar.
 Even though there are still three years until the election, a last-minute rehash by the media would have a negative impact. In the last lower house election, then Secretary General Akira Amari lost his constituency and lost his power. Mr. Hagiuda is afraid of repeating Mr. Amari&#8217;s mistake,&#8221; said a source in Nagata-cho.
In the next election, he will probably not receive support from the old Unification Church, which is his main hope. Another political insider said
 &#8220;Mr. Hagiuda is one of the candidates who is aiming for the &#8216;post-Abe&#8217; position. A few weeks ago, a weekly magazine conducted a survey asking who would be the most suitable successor to former Prime Minister Abe. Hagiuda was ranked first, ahead of Sanae Takaichi and Suga Yoshihide. Although Mr. Hagiuda seemed to be in a good mood, he was laughed out of the room in Nagata-cho, where there was a theory that he was acting on his own.
He was laughed at. At this rate, he will not only become the &#8220;post-Abe&#8221; candidate, but will also be chilly around the neck.

 YUTAKA/Afro

 The former Unification Church is in the spotlight after the sudden death of former Prime Minister Abe. Kōichi Hagiuda, who assumed the post of policy chief after the cabinet reshuffle, has been exposed for his "close" association with the former Unification Church....

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