Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Met with Unification Church Leaders Before 2013 Election
A photo has surfaced showing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with the head of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, formerly known as the Unification Church. The meeting took place at the LDP headquarters in 2013, shortly before the Upper House election.
The Asahi Shimbun obtained several photographs showing Abe with Eiji Tokuno, the president of the church, and other church leaders, including Song Yong-cheon and Hirokazu Ota.
According to sources, the purpose of the meeting was to confirm that the church would support Tsuneo Kitamura, an LDP candidate in the proportional representation part of the election. Kitamura was elected for the first time in that election.
The sources also said that the church's organizational votes were particularly powerful in proportional representation, and that the 2013 Upper House election highlighted the relationship between politicians and the church.
After Abe's assassination in 2022, the LDP ordered lawmakers to self-report their relationships with the church. Kitamura reported that he had received volunteer election support from the church.
The LDP has denied any systemic relationship between the party and the church, and has not conducted an investigation into the lawmakers' contacts with the church. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has also refused to conduct an investigation into the church's connections with Abe.
Hagiuda, who was present at the meeting, said he has no recollection of the meeting and does not know whether the LDP asked church leaders to support Kitamura in the election.
Kishi, who was also present at the meeting, has retired from the Diet and is currently recuperating from an illness. His aides at the time of the meeting now work for the office of his son, Nobuchiyo Kishi, a Lower House member of the LDP. Nobuchiyo's office said that none of his aides could confirm the meeting.