How a Former Osaka City Council Chair of the Osaka Restoration Association Became a Unification Church Member

I joined (the former Unification Church) when I was about two years old in college. I was in a mission school, and one of the required courses was Christianity. As I listened to what they had to say, the (former Unification Church’s) interpretation of the Bible was the one that fit me best.

Keiji Ouchi, 71, a member of the Osaka Restoration Association, is a member of the Osaka City Council. After graduating from Kwansei Gakuin University, Ouchi became a secretary to an LDP lawmaker. He was first elected to the Osaka City Council in 1999 and also served as the chairman of the Osaka City Council in ”11. He has been a councilor for more than 20 years.

He is not the brilliant type, but he is friendly and has few enemies. Although he is a city councilor, he has been a member of the Osaka Restoration since its early days, and is one of the councilors whom Ichiro Matsui trusts. It is a well-known story among those involved in the Restoration that Mr. Ouchi is a member of the former Unification Church. He does not post pictures of church-related events on his blog, but it is said that he and his wife are very religious believers,” said a person related to the Restoration Association.

When we directly interviewed Mr. Ouchi, he said, “My wife and I were formerly members of the Unification Church.

Did you meet my wife at a joint wedding ceremony of the former Unification Church? Yes, we did. My wife is four years older than me and is Japanese. As for the suspect Tetsuya Yamagami, I think he is very intelligent. My original goal was ‘here,’ but by shooting Mr. Abe (Shinzo), it will have the same effect as if I had caused a terrorist attack ‘here.'”

Mr. Ouchi told this magazine, “I have already cut ties with (the former Unification Church). A former member of the Restoration Association of Japan said, “Within the party, there are still people who say, ‘Gachi is still a member of the church.

“Within the party, he is still recognized as a ‘hard-core believer. Recently, when the issue of politics and the former Unification Church came into the spotlight, Ouchi suddenly started saying that he had actually left the church before becoming a politician and that he would retire at the next election.

In response to our direct questioning, he also made such comments as “Japan and Korea are the father and mother of the world” and “there is a ‘bad child’ called communism,” suggesting that he still believes in the tenets of the former Unification Church.

Ouchi says that he has not reported this to the party. However, with so much attention being paid to the lucrative relationship between politics and the former Unification Church, he should be held accountable for his actions.

From the September2, 2022issue ofFRIDAY