Many people in Japan have found it unusually difficult to agree since the death of their record Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. It’s been two weeks since Abe was shot dead while making a campaign speech in Nara. And to the struggle of the police and the media over the truth of the assassination comes the dispute. The largest faction in the ruling LDP party has not yet been able to decide on a successor for its leader Abe. There are different opinions about Abe’s right-wing national legacy. Even the cabinet decision to honor Abe with a state funeral on September 27 aroused resistance: a citizens’ initiative is suing for an injunction because parliament was bypassed in the decision. A few hundred people demonstrated on Friday in front of the Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo.
And then there is the issue of religion. A big issue. The Nara assassination has drawn attention to a Shinzo Abe connection that challenges the credibility of the LDP as a loyal representative of the Shinto state. Already on the day after the murder, investigators announced the motive for the arrested Tetsuya Y.: Abe’s contact with a religious organization to which Y’s mother had donated a fortune. It is now clear that the organization was the Unification Church from South Korea.
Shinzo Abe, always outwardly a devout Shintoist, was in touch with this new religious movement, officially called the “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.” Tomihiro Tanaka, President of the Unification Church in Japan, confirmed at a press conference: “Ex-Prime Minister Abe has been sending messages about events organized by our Friendship Group.” Tanaka also named the group: Universal Peace Federation (UPF). And so now everyone online can verify that Shinzo Abe said via video message at a UPF rally in September 2021, “I appreciate the UPF for their focus on family values.”
But gone astray?
Shinzo Abe was a staunch nationalist. Japan’s state religion played an important role in this. His policy envisaged more Shinto in schooling and a more open commitment to the imperial tradition, according to which the Tenno was of divine origin until World War II. Prayer was important to him, as was regular visits to the Ise Shrine, one of the most important Shinto pilgrimage sites. And in 2013, he angered neighbors China and South Korea by visiting Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honors several Japanese Class A war criminals, as head of government.
Why the flirtation with the Moon sect?
How does that fit with his flirtation with the controversial Unification Church of alleged Jesus representative Sun Myung Moon, who died in 2012? Not so bad, says Yoshihide Sakurai, sociology professor and religious researcher at Hokkaido University in Sapporo.
Religious influences also shape politicians in America and Europe. However, most of these people are actually believers and pursue the values they derive from their beliefs with their politics. In Japan it’s a little different.
According to Sakurai, Japan’s conservatives are primarily concerned with power and electoral success. The purpose therefore justifies the proximity to every imaginable religious group. “Besides the Communist Party, Japanese politicians have received support from various religious groups,” Sakurai explains. A politician can certainly be helped by several religions of different faiths.
Japan’s constitution prescribes the separation of religion and politics. But the reality is different. The LDP, for example, is heavily influenced by the far-right Shinto organization Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference. Nippon Kaigi glorifies the imperial era before 1945, puts Japan’s war guilt into perspective, wants to change the pacifist constitution and represents outdated role models. Anyone new to parliament for the LDP will immediately receive an offer to become a member. Pretty much everyone follows as Nippon Kaigi helps get votes. Abe was a particularly loyal Nippon Kaigi representative.
Political arm of the Buddhists
The small LDP coalition partner Komeito, on the other hand, was founded in the 1960s by members of the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai. Soka Gakkai is the largest new religious movement in Japan today. Komeito is considered their political arm, who can rely on a base capital of votes in every election. The LDP wants to profit from this, so today it overlooks the fact that Komeito was once an almost activist opposition party.
And the Unification Church? Has developed over the decades from a nationalistic South Korean sect into a corporate network of right-wing thinking. Anti-communism and traditional family images are part of her offer, which is why she supports conservatives in various countries. Shinzo Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, prime minister from 1957 to 1960, had connections to the Unification Church. Abe followed suit. The church’s mass marriages, the brainwashing of newcomers, the fundraising demands that have ruined many members—all of which obviously didn’t interest Abe. It was about additional votes. “For elite politicians, the power of Unification Church members was very useful. On the other hand, the Unification Church used the name for its interests,” says Yoshihide Sakurai.
That means Japanese politicians don’t actually have any faith? Yoshihide Sakurai laughs. “Right. No belief.”
For many Japanese, Shinto is more of a lifestyle
No wonder actually. Japan’s society is secular at its core. At funeral services one adheres to Buddhism. In December, retailers use the Christian Christmas festival as a sales argument. You go to the Shinto shrine to pray. Shinto, on the other hand, has no script like the Bible or the Koran, and little moral orientation. Instead, Kami, gods or excellencies that are in all things in life, and various rituals that primarily determine the life of the emperor, the Shinto high priest. Many people in Japan do not perceive Shinto as a religion at all, but rather as part of a lifestyle.
For Shinzo Abe it was certainly more. For other politicians too. But not in the sense of a pious reference to God. “They want to show their patriotism to the public,” says Yoshihide Sakurai. In his view, Shinto is part of a sophisticated mass manipulation. “Before the Meiji period to 1868, Shinto was more of a spiritual folk belief.” After that, Japan’s government loaded Shinto with meaning and thus staged the island state as a chosen nation, especially before and during the Second World War. Today, Shinto conveys a rather vague sense of home. “It’s a very, very artificial religion,” says Yoshihide Sakurai. So artificial that Shinzo Abe’s proximity to the Unification Church certainly never felt wrong.