Japan would deal a massive blow to the universal principle of religious freedom, could deeply damage its relationship with the U.S. and would hand a major win to communist China if it follows through with an effort to punish the Unification Church, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned.
Mr. Gingrich and other prominent political and spiritual figures Tuesday night told this week’s International Religious Freedom Summit 2025 in Washington that the Japanese government’s push to strip the Unification Church of its religious status is the most recent communist-backed attack on the church, which has operated in the country since the late 1950s.
“The Biden administration has already condemned this activity. The United Nations has already condemned this activity. And now, with President Trump, we have somebody who is deeply, passionately committed to religious liberty,” Mr. Gingrich said in a prerecorded video address to the summit.
“This is going to have grave consequences for the United States’ relationship with Japan and our view of what is happening with Japanese politics,” he said. “It’s very important that Japan remain pro-freedom. It’s very important that Japan follow its own constitution.
“It’s very important that Japan remain with America and not allow itself to be gradually overwhelmed by communist China.”
Although the anti-Unification push in Japan dates back many decades, the most recent communist-backed attack on the church began after the 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The killing of Abe, a close friend of Mr. Trump, and the aftermath of his death seem to have emboldened fringe Japanese communists, who have since tried to smear and discredit Abe’s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party over its links to the Unification Church. The gunman accused of shooting Abe allegedly was motivated by the former prime minister’s links to the church, which he blamed for bankrupting his family two decades ago.
A Tokyo court is now considering whether to strip the Unification Church of its tax-exempt status in Japan, even amid significant questions about the secretive, closed-door nature of the proceedings and what critics say is questionable, deeply problematic evidence to support its case.
A decision is expected soon.
Speakers at the IRF Summit said ending the church’s tax-exempt status would reverberate worldwide and chill the freedom of religion for worshippers of all faiths.
The summit, its organizers said, is built on the idea that every faith should work together to defend the freedom of religion for all. On the convention stage Tuesday evening, representatives from numerous faiths poured a glass of water into the same large bowl, symbolically “combining forces” for the principles of religious liberty.
“This lovely ceremony we just witnessed with all the various faith communities pouring their water together into that shared bowl really has distilled in a beautifully symbolic way what the … summit is all about: coming together in unity, sharing our faith, and combining forces to defend the rights of all of us,” said Katrina Lantos Swett, co-chair of the summit, co-chair of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and a former Democratic congressional candidate.
Mr. Gingrich said a strong geopolitical dynamic is also at play with the Unification Church in Japan. That dynamic comes against the backdrop of the generation-defining global competition between Washington and Beijing, with communist forces in Japan trying to pull their country away from America and toward China.
“It was an effort, frankly, by the communists to create an environment where there could be a closer relationship with China and a more distant relationship with the United States,” Mr. Gingrich said in his address during an event hosted by The Washington Times Foundation and Universal Peace Federation. “The government has been trying to destroy the Unification Church. It’s gone so far beyond the Japanese Constitution. It has found no crimes. It has no basis for what it’s doing.”
Dozens of high-level attendees at the IRF Summit signed a statement Tuesday night that called on Japan to abandon its attacks on the Unification Church.
“We believe that the strong emotions generated by the Abe assassination, understandable though they may be, should not lead to legislation, administrative, or legal actions that violate human rights in Japan,” the statement reads in part. “A democracy should not arbitrarily harm the right of any religion to operate freely, collect donations, and transmit its faith and moral values to the next generation.”
It’s unclear whether the Trump administration intends to put public or private pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to abandon the country’s crusade against the Unification Church.
‘A line that should never be crossed’
The IRF Summit featured remarks from various international and U.S. religious and political leaders. It was co-chaired by Ms. Lantos Swett and Sam Brownback, a former Kansas governor and now U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
Speakers drew attention to a host of threats to religious freedom around the world, including pressure from hard-line regimes such as those in China and Iran and the plight of Christians in Ukraine as the country nears the third anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked military invasion.
Some of the sharpest comments came in response to the situation in Japan involving the country’s branch of the Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
Family Federation President Tomihiro Tanaka cast the effort inside Japan as “witch-hunt-like religious persecution” that stands in stark contrast with Japan’s status as a democratic nation.
“Since the assassination of Prime Minister Abe in 2022, members of the Family Federation have been experiencing great suffering,” he said. “I believe that the Japanese government has crossed a line that should never be crossed. The fact is that the Family Federation has not committed any criminal offenses that could be grounds for dissolution.”
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon founded the Unification Church in 1954.
What began with a tiny church founded in South Korea in the 1950s has evolved over decades into a global spiritual movement and affiliated commercial empire comprising hundreds of ventures, including The Washington Times. Rev. Moon’s wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, has headed the Unification movement since Rev. Moon died in 2012.
Legal questions
The Unification Church has a strong anti-communist stance, and Japanese members have a history of assisting the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the long-dominant conservative party, with electioneering.
Ties between the LDP and the church were torn apart in 2022 when Abe, Japan’s longest-serving post-war prime minister and a key LDP figure, was assassinated.
His killer was angered by Abe’s links to the church. He said the church caused his mother’s bankruptcy because of huge monetary donations from her. The church’s defenders note that the killer’s mother, who is still a church member, and other family members signed a statement absolving the church of any responsibility and that she received half her donations back.
Japan’s parliament enacted a law in December 2022 restricting donation solicitations by religious and other groups to politicians. The law has triggered warnings from freedom-of-faith groups worldwide, including the International Religious Freedom Roundtable, which has representatives in dozens of countries.
The law prohibits religious groups from engaging in “spiritual sales” of items that carry religious significance and allows believers, other donors and their families to seek the return of money given to religious organizations.
Lawyer Patricia Duval, who has defended the Unification Church for more than a decade, warned at Tuesday night’s event that the law could extend far beyond one church, denomination or faith.
“This law has been announced as being especially designed for the Unification Church, but it could undoubtedly be applied against other targeted denominations in the future,” she said.
Members of the Unification Church say the church has not engaged in spiritual sales for more than a decade.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.