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Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

TOKYO, Japan, March 26 Kyodo - Tomihiro Tanaka, head of the Unification Church's Japan branch, holds a press conference in Tokyo on March 25, 2025, after the Tokyo District Court ordered the church's dissolution, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages. (Kyodo)

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[Breaking News]Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

TOKYO, Japan, March 26 Kyodo - Video taken on March 25, 2025, shows a building housing the Unification Church in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. The Tokyo District Court ordered the same day the church's dissolution, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages. (Kyodo)

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Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

Photo taken on March 25, 2025, shows a building housing the Unification Church in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. The Tokyo District Court ordered the same day the church's dissolution, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages.

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Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

Photo taken on March 25, 2025, shows a building housing the Unification Church in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. The Tokyo District Court ordered the same day the church's dissolution, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages.

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Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

Lawyer Nobuya Fukumoto (front) is surrounded by journalists in front of the Tokyo District Court in the Japanese capital on March 25, 2025, after the court ordered that his client, the Unification Church, be dissolved, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages.

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Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

Lawyer Nobuya Fukumoto (front) is surrounded by journalists in front of the Tokyo District Court in the Japanese capital on March 25, 2025, after the court ordered that his client, the Unification Church, be dissolved, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages.

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Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

Lawyer Nobuya Fukumoto (front) is surrounded by journalists in front of the Tokyo District Court in the Japanese capital on March 25, 2025, after the court ordered that his client, the Unification Church, be dissolved, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages.

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Japan court orders dissolution of Unification Church

Journalists gather around the Tokyo District Court in the Japanese capital on March 25, 2025. The court ordered the same day that the Unification Church be dissolved, a decision that will deprive the controversial organization, criticized for soliciting financially ruinous donations from its members, of its status as a religious corporation with tax advantages.

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[Breaking News]No-confidence motion against scandal-hit minister

TOKYO, Feb. 20 Kyodo - Japanese education minister Masahito Moriyama bows after the House of Representatives voted down a no-confidence motion against him at a plenary session in Tokyo on Feb. 20, 2024, over his links to the controversial Unification Church.(Kyodo)

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No-confidence motion against scandal-hit minister

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is pictured at a plenary session of the House of Representatives in Tokyo on Feb. 20, 2024. The lower house voted down a no-confidence motion against education minister Masahito Moriyama over his links to the controversial Unification Church.

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No-confidence motion against scandal-hit minister

Japanese education minister Masahito Moriyama bows after the House of Representatives voted down a no-confidence motion against him at a plenary session in Tokyo on Feb. 20, 2024, over his links to the controversial Unification Church.

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No-confidence motion against scandal-hit minister

Photo taken Feb. 20, 2024, shows a plenary session of Japan's House of Representatives in Tokyo. The lower house voted down a no-confidence motion against education minister Masahito Moriyama over his links to the controversial Unification Church.

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No-confidence motion against Japan education minister Moriyama

Lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Japan submit a no-confidence motion against Education Minister Masahito Moriyama over his alleged link with the controversial Unification Church to House of Representatives Secretary General Noriharu Okada (C, R) at the parliament building in Tokyo on Feb. 19, 2024.

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No-confidence motion against Japan education minister Moriyama

Lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Japan submit a no-confidence motion against Education Minister Masahito Moriyama over his alleged link with the controversial Unification Church to House of Representatives Secretary General Noriharu Okada (C, R) at the parliament building in Tokyo on Feb. 19, 2024.

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No-confidence motion against Japan education minister Moriyama

Japanese education minister Masahito Moriyama (L) leaves a chamber in the Diet in Tokyo on Feb. 19, 2024, after the Democratic Party of Japan submitted a no-confidence motion against him following a report that he received a recommendation letter from an affiliated group of the controversial Unification Church ahead of a general election in October 2021.

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Japan education minister in parliament

Japan's education minister Masahito Moriyama speaks at a House of Representatives Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Feb. 6, 2024, following a newspaper report that he received a recommendation letter from an affiliated group of the controversial Unification Church ahead of a general election in October 2021.

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Japan education minister in parliament

Japan's education minister Masahito Moriyama (far L) speaks at a House of Representatives Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Feb. 6, 2024, following a newspaper report that he received a recommendation letter from an affiliated group of the controversial Unification Church ahead of a general election in October 2021.

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JAPAN-TOKYO-UNIFICATION CHURCH

(231013) -- TOKYO, Oct. 13, 2023 (Xinhua) -- A person walks past a branch of the Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Tokyo, Oct. 12, 2023. Japan's education and culture ministry announced on Thursday its decision to seek a court order to disband the Unification Church. The move came after a months-long probe into the controversial religious group over alleged malicious practices including soliciting financially ruinous donations from members. TO GO WITH "Japanese gov't vows to seek court order to disband Unification Church" (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

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Japan's reconstruction minister steps down over scandals

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets the press at the premier's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022, after reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba, embroiled in scandals over the use of political funds and his ties with the controversial Unification Church, handed in his resignation.

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Japan's reconstruction minister steps down over scandals

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets the press at the premier's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022, after reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba, embroiled in scandals over the use of political funds and his ties with the controversial Unification Church, handed in his resignation.

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Japan's reconstruction minister steps down over scandals

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets the press at the premier's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022, after reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba, embroiled in scandals over the use of political funds and his ties with the controversial Unification Church, handed in his resignation.

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Japan's reconstruction minister resigns over string of scandals

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets the press at his office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022, after reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba offered to step down from his post over a political funds scandal and his ties with the controversial Unification Church.

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Japan's reconstruction minister resigns over string of scandals

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets the press at his office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022, after reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba offered to step down from his post over a political funds scandal and his ties with the controversial Unification Church.

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Japan's reconstruction minister resigns over string of scandals

Japanese reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba meets the press at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022, following a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to convey his decision to step down from his post over a political funds scandal and his ties with the controversial Unification Church.

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Japan's reconstruction minister resigns over string of scandals

Japanese reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba meets the press at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022, following a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to convey his decision to step down from his post over a political funds scandal and his ties with the controversial Unification Church.

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Japan's reconstruction minister to step down over string of scandals

Japanese reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba (C) arrives at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022. He is expected to step down from his post later in the day over a political funds scandal and his ties with the controversial Unification Church.

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Japan's reconstruction minister to step down over string of scandals

Japanese reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba (C) arrives at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022. He is expected to step down from his post later in the day over a political funds scandal and his ties with the controversial Unification Church.

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Japan's reconstruction minister to step down over string of scandals

Japanese reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba (C) arrives at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2022. He is expected to step down from his post later in the day over a political funds scandal and his ties with the controversial Unification Church.

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Japan's new economic revitalization minister Goto

Japan's new economic revitalization minister Shigeyuki Goto speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on Oct. 25, 2022, following his predecessor Daishiro Yamagiwa's resignation amid a wave of criticism over his ties to the controversial Unification Church.

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Unification Church tries to derail ex-believer's press conference

The controversial Unification Church on Friday attempted to stop a former believer's press conference by sending a message purportedly signed by her parents, but she pressed ahead and spoke out on alleged abuses that she and other believers endured at its hands. In a summarized version of the faxed message read out during the event, Sayuri Ogawa's parents called for the press conference to be halted immediately, saying their daughter has a "tendency to lie," and the psychiatric issues she said she suffers had worsened since a gunman killed former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. At the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, which hosted the event, Ogawa, who uses a pseudonym to protect her real identity, relayed her traumatic experiences as a so-called second-generation church believer.