A Japanese right-wing activist stages a rally in front of Korean Embassy in Tokyo in Jan. 31, 2021. Korea Times file

Fanatical Abe supporters are key members of anti-Korean hate group but have so far stayed silent after assassination

By Kang Hyun-kyung

The Consulate General of South Korea in Japan's Fukuoka prefecture created an uproar on July 8, the day when Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by an unemployed 41-year-old Japanese man named Tetsuya Yamagami.

After the shocking news, South Korea's Consulate General uploaded a social media post warning Koreans in Japan about their safety, mentioning the possibility of anti-Korean hate crimes. It encouraged Koreans to stay safe and call the police or the consulate if they feel their safety is in danger.

The social media post raised eyebrows of both South Koreans and Japanese. Japanese, who were aware of the social media post, complained that the South Korean consulate general was treating Japanese people as potential criminals, while some called it hate speech. South Koreans were also left scratching their heads. They found it difficult to understand the necessity of such a warning, considering that the suspect who was caught at the scene is Japanese, not Korean. After furious reactions, the consulate removed the post.

Developments were made earlier this week as some of the investigation results concerning Yamagami's motives behind the shooting were made public. The suspect reportedly told investigators that he held a grudge toward a certain organization ― which was later identified as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, better known as the Unification Church ― because his mother has joined it and her "huge donations" to the organization had caused his family to go bankrupt.

Created in 1954 by Moon Sun-myung, a self-declared messiah, the Unification Church is a religious sect that began in Korea. Some call it a cult, but its members claim that it is a legitimate religious movement. The Unification Church began spreading to Japan in 1958 and Abe's maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, is known to have played a key role in its expansion.

The religious sect's link with Korea, ironically, served as a clue explaining the South Korean Consulate General's "early warning" about anti-Korean hate crimes as not being entirely baseless, albeit it was obvious that it issued the warning without knowing the Yamagami family's ties with the church. The fact that many of Abe's stalwart supporters are also core members of far-right hate groups has also fueled speculation that hate crimes against Koreans could be on the rise after the assassination.

People line up to offer flowers for late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election at Headquarters of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party in Tokyo, on July 11. Reuters

Yuji Hosaka, a naturalized Korean professor at Sejong University in Seoul, said media coverage about the Unification Church has increased in Japan, but there's little evidence so far to support the possibility that hate crimes targeting Koreans are or will be on the rise.

He said his views are based on public opinion, which he gathered online from media coverage as well as people's reactions to news articles about Abe's death and the ensuing investigations.

"Most of Abe's ardent supporters are the ones mostly responsible for hate speech or crimes, but they rarely speak about or criticize the Unification Church publicly," he told The Korea Times. "I think they don't blame Korea, Koreans or the Unification Church, maybe because they believe criticizing the religious group that was related to Abe could only backfire and do a disservice to the late former prime minister."

Hosaka said the Unification Church seems to be seen by many Japanese as a localized religious movement, rather than a religious sect that was imported from Korea, noting this could be another reason for the apparent absence of hate crimes against Koreans.

He claimed that Abe's "ties" with the Unification Church were politically motivated. Abe and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) tried to take advantage of the religious movement for their elections, because the Unification Church has an anti-communist affiliate that has some 10 million members, according to him. "In Japan, the registered members of the Unification Church are 600,000 or so, but those who are affiliated with the anti-communist group are far greater than the church members mainly because the latter is non-religious and people can join without being affiliated with the church," he said. These members were a key political asset to Abe as, due to their huge membership, they could make or break his elections, Hosaka went on to say.

The Unification Church is one of the new religious movements that allegedly created several social problems in Japan. A source familiar with the Unification Church said that it has been embroiled in several legal actions as some of its members hired lawyers to get their past donations back. Criticism emerged about the religious sect for it allegedly solicited its members to make huge donations, he said.

Ahn Ho-yeol, chief of the publicity department of the Unification Church in Korea, said the allegation was exaggerated.

"It's true that two or three decades ago, we faced some legal issues as some members resorted to lawsuits to get their past donations back. There were a few cases, not many though," he told The Korea Times. "But this happened in the past."

He claimed a series of lawsuits against the Unification Church in the past was the result of "self-serving right-wing Japanese lawyers" who conned their clients with promises that they could get their money back.

Regarding the assassination of Abe, he said the Unification Church was shocked at the tragic news and sends its condolences to the family members. He went on to say that what the suspect said about his motive for killing the former Japanese prime minister was nonsensical.

Yamagami was quoted as saying that he targeted Abe after the former Japanese prime minister gave an address via a video at an event last September hosted by an organization affiliated with the Unification Church.