Bill to help Unification Church victims passed into law
18:15 JST, December 10, 2022
A bill intended to prevent damage from unscrupulous solicitations for large donations by groups such as the Unification Church was passed into law Saturday by a majority vote in the House of Councillors.
The passage of the legislation came ahead of the closing of the 69-day extraordinary Diet session on the same day.
At a plenary session of the upper house, the bill was backed by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, as well as opposition parties, such as the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party).
The legislation is intended to help victims of problems linked to the Unification Church, which is officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
Earlier the same day, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a meeting of the upper house’s Special Committee on Consumer Affairs, “We will clarify the interpretation of the legislation and improve the consultation system to ensure that the law will be used properly.”
Regarding setting up a commission to examine matters such as the implementation of the law, Kishida expressed the intention to consider including relevant victims and lawyers among the commission’s members.
The bill concerns solicitations of donations by corporations and other organizations targeting individuals and prohibits six types of acts that could confuse people, including so-called spiritual sales tactics. It also obliges relevant entities to consider three points, such as “not making it difficult for individuals to make appropriate judgments by suppressing their free will.”
It is unusual that Diet deliberations were held on a Saturday. Apart from cases in which Diet deliberations were carried into a weekend or public holiday from the previous day, this is the first such occasion in about 29 years, since four laws related to political reforms were enacted on Jan. 29, 1994, to establish the current system of House of Representatives elections.
"Politics" POPULAR ARTICLE
-
Chinese Ships Stay in Japanese Waters near Senkaku Islands for 2 Days
-
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Promotes Revised NISA Investment Program to Young People; Kishida Focusing on Moving Money From Savings to Investment in a Safe Environment
-
Japan, U.S. to Join Forces on AI, Semiconductors; Seek to Counter China’s ‘Military-Civil Fusion’
-
Japan, U.S. to Work Together for Expanding Marine Product Supply Chains; Countering China’s Economic Coercion
-
84% of People Nationwide Say They Feel Japan’s National Security Is Under Threat
JN ACCESS RANKING
- Japan Lags in Efforts to Gain Value from Human Resources; Govt Working to Increase Usage
- M6.0 Earthquake Hits Japan’s Tohoku Region; Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi Prefectures Observe 4 on Japanese Scale With No Risk of Tsunami
- Cherry Blossoms Draw Crowd to Tokyo’s Ueno Park; Viewing Season Kicks Off to Slow Start
- Shohei Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara Appears in School Textbook; Publisher Considers Replacing Content
- Shinkansen Services Suspended After Man ‘Searches for Phone’ on Tracks; Disruption Affects About 14,000 Passengers