Yoshio Arita
Shinzo AbeFormer prime minister (age 67)shooting incident50 days have already passed since then.Tetsuya Yamagami (41), who was arrested in the same case, said that the motive for the crime was that his motherUnification ChurchI signed up, filed for bankruptcy, and my family was in shambles.”
In response to this, all kinds of mass media, including magazines and television, began to report on the problems surrounding the Unification Church’s sorcery business law and mass weddings. It is no exaggeration to say that all Japanese people are now looking for “experts” in the Unification Church.
“I have been involved with the Unification Church for 40 years on TV, but it is actually 50 years.”
Mr. Arita, who says so, is the oldest member of the Unification Church problem.journalistis. It was in 1987 that he began writing full-scale articles on the cult in the Asahi Journal. Since then, the group has been subjected to various attacks.
“First of all, it was a protest call to my house. I gave my real name and complained that it was ‘outrageous’. In 1992, when I wrote an article for Shukan Bunshun, I received a threatening letter. Because I used scissors. Although it was good, the cutter was set so that if you open it by hand, you will get hurt.
There was a clear tailing from that time, but the worst was after appearing on the wide show in 1992. When I was walking up the stairs of Shibuya Station (where the cult headquarters is located), a man came across me and punched me in the left chest, telling me to remember this face. When I was trying to cover a dummy organization of a cult that existed in Hokkaido, a trembling man asked me, “Should I kill you?” Well, I was just saying
It is said that the cult’s systematic threats and tailings are too numerous to mention.
“For example, he instructed his followers to say, ‘Make silent calls between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.’. Many former followers have testified to that. At that time, the phone number notification was given. It was an era when there was no telephone, so the person who received the call had no idea where the call was coming from.As for tailing, the cult hired an information agency called the “White Brigades.” It was there.
In 1993, when Hiroko Yamazaki left the group, her car was parked near the homes of the people involved, and they were monitored from there. A transmitter was attached to the car, and the situation of movement was grasped. It was later discovered through interviews with people inside the cult that he was actually being followed all the time while he was away from Tokyo for the interview. It seems that the cult assumed that Mr. Yamazaki would be protected at the place where I was moving.”
However, Mr. Arita says that these days, even such cults can be felt to be weaker than ever before.
“Recently, there have been no floods of harassing phone calls, only protest letters. Isn’t the Unification Church in a difficult situation? I think
For this very reason, Mr. Arita stresses that the Unification Church must be pursued more sharply than ever before.
“For example, how many believers are among the public and private secretaries of Diet members? When I researched in the 1980s, I learned that even though it is not possible today, I obtained family registers and checked them against the list of believers. It took me half a year to get behind the scenes, and even now, relying on the Diet Handbook, I plan to take the time to investigate the Unification Church officials inside the political world.”
There are too many issues that need to be brought to light.
Born in Kyoto in 1952. Journalist and former member of the House of Councilors.Mainly in weekly magazines, he has been involved in reporting on the Unification Church and Aum Shinrikyo incidents for many years.
( Weekly FLASH September 13, 2022 issue
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