Supreme Court Upholds Ruling Against Unification Church, Moves Closer to Dissolution

Japan's Supreme Court made a pivotal ruling on March 3 against the controversial religious group known as the Unification Church, now officially referred to as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. The ruling upheld a previous decision requiring the group to pay a fine of 100,000 yen (around $670) due to its refusal to answer questions posed by the country's education ministry. Although the monetary fine itself was small, the central concern for the court was clarifying the interpretation of the Religious Corporation Law, which governs the activities and legal status of religious organizations in Japan.

The key legal dispute revolved around whether a religious organization's dissolution could result only from violations of the Criminal Law or if offenses under Civil Law could also warrant such drastic measures. The Unification Church maintained that only criminal violations should be considered valid grounds for dissolution. However, the Supreme Court's First Petty Bench unanimously rejected this argument, emphasizing that illegal activities under the Civil Law could also constitute substantial harm to the public's welfare and thereby make the religious organization's existence inappropriate.

Previously, the education ministry, responsible for supervising religious groups, had formally requested the Tokyo District Court to dissolve the Unification Church in October 2023. This request cited 32 separate civil court judgments against the church, primarily over its controversial approaches to soliciting donations from its followers. Before filing this request, the ministry had attempted extensive inquiries by sending questionnaires to the church multiple times between November 2022 and July 2023. The church repeatedly declined to fully cooperate, leading the ministry to request the court to impose fines as penalties.

Both the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court previously ruled that a fine against the Unification Church was justified, and the Supreme Court's ruling now finalizes this position. Additionally, the Supreme Court specifically indicated that the education ministry has sufficient authority to question religious organizations about their practices and that such dissolution would not infringe upon constitutional guarantees for religious freedom. Dissolution would merely strip away the church's legal corporate identity, not restrict the ability of its individual members to practice their beliefs.

Following the ruling, Education Minister Toshiko Abe reaffirmed that the ministry would continue pressing the Unification Church to answer outstanding questions fully. Historically, dissolutions of religious organizations have been exceptionally rare in Japan, with only two previous cases, one of them involving the infamous Aum Shinrikyo cult. The uncommon nature of such dissolution orders has left unclear legal standards, which this current Supreme Court decision helps to clarify for future cases.