FFWPU Europe and the Middle East: Japanese Government Prosecutors Win 99.9% Of Cases

Why do government prosecutors always win? Does Japan Have an Independent Judiciary? Implications for the Unification Church Dissolution Case

Scholars have noted that, while proclaimed by the Constitution, the independence of the Japanese judiciary is in fact limited by the government’s role in appointing and promoting judges.

by Dr. Michael Mickler

First published by Bitter Winter 13th Jan. 2024.

The Constitution of Japan guarantees that “all judges shall be independent in the exercise of their conscience and shall be bound only by this Constitution and the laws” (Article 76). Japan’s judges have adequate compensation, regular promotion, and protections against removal. In practice, they are regarded as being honest and professionally competent. They enjoy high levels of public trust.

However, questions persist as to the judiciary’s independence, particularly in its restraint toward actions of Japan’s executive and legislative branches. Even in accounts extolling its virtues, Japan’s judiciary is recognized as being “cautiously conservative.”

There are several reasons for this. Keiichi Muraoka, in Dr. Michael Mickler “Independence on the Bench: Political and Bureaucratic Constraints on the Japanese Judiciary,” lists Japan’s judicial appointment process and hierarchical career system as factors. Notably, the Japanese Constitution gives the ruling party’s cabinet the authority to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and lower courts. According to Muraoka, “This diminishes judicial autonomy to a considerable degree by enabling the ruling parties at the time to leverage their power of appointment to ‘reward’ with promotion […] judges who show deference toward government policies and ‘punish’ those who are less permissive of executive authority.”

Japan’s hierarchical career system further contributes to “judicial conformity and conservative-minded benches.” Most judges begin their careers upon graduation from the court-administered Legal Training and Research Institute (LTRI). Muraoka notes that new judges come to the bench with next to no practical legal experience” and a “powerful judicial administration keeps a close watch over their performance.” Moreover, “Transfers are routine, resulting in significant discrepancies in positions and in salaries.” According to Muraoka, “’homogenizing’ of the Japanese courts casts a dark shadow over judicial independence.”

Harvard Law School Professor J. Mark Ramseyer in a number of articles later published as “Measuring

Judicial Independence: The Political Economy of Judging in Japan,” argued similarly. He highlighted the “urgent need for reforms that align with the actualities of judiciary independence.”

Apart from political and bureaucratic constraints, several anomalies in Japanese judicial practice inhibit transparency. For example, Japan does not utilize juries and proceedings are private. In fact, disclosure of deliberations can result in severe penalties. In addition, as widely reported, government prosecutors win 99.9% of cases and 98% of appeals. As a consequence, a presumption of guilt culture is prevalent.

All of this has implications for the Unification Church (UC) dissolution case.

Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), an organ of the executive branch with jurisdiction over registered religious organization, brought the case against the UC, requesting the Tokyo District Court to issue an order of dissolution under Japan’s religious corporation law. In addition, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), announced the investigation into the UC and in a departure from precedent, stated that an order to dissolve the UC could be based on civil Front cover page of “Measuring rather than criminal violations. Judicial Independence: The Political Economy of Judging in Outrage against the UC exploded following the assassination of Japan” by J. Mark Ramseyer and former PM Shinzo Abe on July 8, 2022. The assassin, 41-year- Eric. B. Rasmusen old Tetsuya Yamagami, told investigators that he shot Abe in retaliation for Abe’s support of the UC and that he held a grudge against the church over his mother’s donations more than twenty years previously. Japanese media subsequently exposed ties between the UC and the LDP, causing the ruling party to disavow any further relationship.

Various human rights activists vigorously opposed treatment of the UC in public statements, press conferences, petitions, lawsuits and multiple articles, including extensive coverage in “Bitter Winter,” but as yet to little effect. An attorney for the UC provided data showing that not a single case for refund of UC donations has been filed in the last seven years and that other Japanese religious groups that had committed malicious crimes, including group assaults and murder, were not pursued by the government by seeking orders to dissolve.

Left: USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett in Oslo 8th Nov. 2014 - Right: Suzan Johnson Cook in July 2023

Suzan Johnson Cook, former U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom and Katrina Lantos Swett, former chair of the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, likewise expressed concern that “Dissolving a religious organization that has not been found guilty of any crime would taint the image of Japan as a country committed to democratic principles.”

The Tokyo District Court’s judicial independence will be put to the test in separating legal arguments from political pressure and public opinion.

The judges may find a way forward by exercising a feature emphasized in Japanese courts known as wakai, i.e., settlements by mutual agreement of the parties, with no loser or winner.

On November 7, 2023, UC President Tomihiro Tanaka announced plans to allocate up to 10 billion yen ($67 million) to the Japanese government to cover possible compensation for former believers and their families for damage they claim to have suffered. He apologized for “circumstances that led to the situation” but clarified that “the apology did not equate to an acknowledgment of wrongdoing by the church toward former believers.” What impact, if any, the offer will have on the government’s dissolution request, which Tanaka termed “impossible to accept,” is an open question.

Tomihiro Tanaka, chairman of the Family Federation of Japan, at press conference in Tokyo 7th Nov. 2023

Michael Mickler, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the HJ International and Director of the Sunhak Institute of History USA. He is the author inter alia of “The Unification Church Movement” (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and of more than fifty articles on the Unification movement.

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Kishida Has Opened Can of Worms < 11

HAK JA HAN … I JAPAN … RELIGIOUS FREEDOM … I COMMEMORATING …

Kishida Has Opened Can Of ma a e Worms Share: a January 7, 2024 • Knut Holdhus

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JdUUdl y .t., .t.U.G”! Part 5 of an interview with Masaki Kubota (;’JIHJJ!Li!i!E), author of “Infiltrating the Former Unification Church”

by Seisaku Morita (tfHJ i’fi!:ff)

Part 7, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6, part 7 Search. - Various media polls show that 70 to 80 percent of the public supports the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s request for an order to disband the Family Federation for World Categories Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church).

Th is is probably the resu lt of the mass media’s incitement of hatred aga inst the former Unification Church. Even though people have not been ha rmed or had any Send us a message unpleasant experiences, they believe med ia reports and have an image of the religious The logo of the First Name Last Name organisation as “ horrible”. As I have a lready Sekai Nippo p ointed o ut, the people in the media w ho are involved in reporting, cover neither the religious organisation nor its active believers properly. There is a problem w ith the prov ider of the information. • Email *

In add ition, Japanese p eople are now very serious about Email Address money issues, and there is strong opposition to tax increases. A growi ng number of people insist that relig ious corporations Your Message * that receive preferentia l tax treatment, should be made to pay taxes, and that their privi leged position shou ld be removed.

The d issolution order is however not a pa latable deal that simply means paying taxes one was previously exempted from. For a relig ious corporation, it’s a “death sentence”. The Submit public supports it w ithout considering that it infringes on the freedom of religion.

- In addition to the media, politics is also largely to blame.

The person w ho bears the heaviest responsibil ity for it is Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Even in capacity of being the “leader of the Liberal Democratic Pa rty”, and certai n ly for a prime m inister, it was unbecom i ng to decla re that the religious organization was “anti-social”’ and announce that he wou ld ~ “sever ties” with it . This gave the Fumio Kishida 14th July go-a head to app ly for a 2022. Photo: ‘f!if{j’ffiE.£/J/ d issolution order. Wikimedia Commons. License: CC Attr 4.0 Int. When my book-p ubl ishing Cropped project was proposed, many executives of publishing companies expressed concerns and declined. This was because the state had requested the dissolution of the Unification Church on the grounds that it was an “antisocial group”. Even the book “ Infiltrating the Former Unification Church” is not being advertise d. The trigger for th is series of events was not so much the media, b ut Prime Minister Kishida, who, fearing crit icism from the m ed ia, rashly declared to have “cut ties”.

When Sh inzo Abe was Prime Min ister, the media took an anti - authorities stance, saying “We will co ntinue to pursu e the Moritomo Gakuen (~a#il) and Kake Gakuen (1.J□~t#il) issues (the Morikake problem - ‘E 1) ti’.7r”’~/m)” [Scandals w here it w as claimed that government officials had given preferential treatment to school operators w ith ties to the prime minister]. In reality, the media should also take an anti-authorities stance aga inst Prime Minister Kishida and verify h is declaration of havi ng severed ties, but they depend on information from officia ls, so they cannot complain about the policy decided by the government.

- Did Prime Minister Kishida make a “declaration of cutting

011 ttes” w,rnour unaersranamg wnar ,r meanr, ana 1mtta11y not consider requesting a d issolution order?

He probably didn’t think deeply about it. 1think the worst d isaster t hat came from doing it on the spur of the moment was the request for a d issolution order. I don’t know if he d id it because he was told to by those around him, but I think it’s not possible that he had any strong i ntention to dissolve [the Family Federation]. However, the declaration of having cut al l ties and the request for a d issolution o rder left behind a huge negative legacy. The believers have been reduced to beings who do not need to be heard.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LOP) and the Internationa l Federation for Victory over Communism (IFVOC) fought e lections together for over SO years. When the LOP was pressed by a Communist Party member in the Diet in 1987 to cut ties with the IFVOC because “Sun Myung Moon (the founder of the former Unification Church) is behind the movement to enact the Anti- I Espionage Law”, Yasuh iro Yasuhiro Nakasone (7978- Nakasone (q:,IH~~). prime 2079), Japanese Prim e minister at the time, firm ly Minist er 1982-7987. Photo: defended the li ne of “respecting tffffJ’if?EffJJt-.- b.rz- ::; I freedom of thought and religion Wikimedia Com mons. to the ful lest”. License: CC Attr 4.0 Int

Interacting with people from religious organizations is not a bad th ing. However, when the Libera l Democratic Party (LOP) broke that line by “cutting t ies”, it landed itself i n trouble. While receiving support from various rel igious organizations and groups, Prime Minister Kishida, without even rea lizing it, opened a Pandora’s Box by declaring a severing of ties with a specific religious organisation without any legal basis.

Interviewer: Seisaku Morita

Continued in part 6 and part 7.

Part 7, part 2, part 3, part 4

Featured image above: Pandora trying to close the box that she had opened out of curiosity At left, the evils of the world escape. Based on a work by Frederick Stuart Church (7842- 7924). Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image

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And still more about Kishida’s can of worms: Japan Copying Totalitarian Regimes

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Masaki Kubota (;’JlHJ!lli!i! E) is a non -fiction writer who has contributed to weekly and monthly magazines. He has also

worked first as a producer, then as an advisor for TV- documentaries. He is journalist for a weekly magazine and a newspaper, and editor of a monthly magazine. In addition, he works as a media consultant, having conducted over 200 public relations consultations and media training sessions The front cover of (training on how to handle ‘Infiltrating the Former interviews). Unification Church’ (;’fl.A !B.*/t- fk~ (111ttf1ffri~~ His books include Jfrj /lff,;/NGiwfJilff/k])~Jfl - Tankobon Softcover, Nov. • “Spin Doctor - Techniques of 2023}, by Masaki Kubota Information Manipulation (ifiH3/!LQ!EJ. Used by Professionals Who ‘Hush up Bad Information”’ (Kodansha Alpha Bunko - 2009), which deals with Japan’s political and corporate public relations strategies, and • “74 Stairs - Reportage on the Niigata Girl’s 9 Years and 2 Months Confinement Case” (Shogakukan - 2006), which w on the 12th Shogakukan Non -fiction Award for Excellence. • His new book, “Infiltrating the Former Unification Church - the Complete Story of the Request for a Dissolution Order and the Deepest Secrets of the ‘No Good Coverage”’, is currently on sale.

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