The Assassination of Shinzô Abé and Public Backlash against the Unification Church: Spiritual Abuse, Victim Blaming, or Both?

Abstract: This paper analyzes the Abé assassination and its aftermath in light of the history of Japanese religions and current debates about spiritual abuse and the marginalization of NRMs. Data is drawn from archival research and the examination of public comments issued by representatives of the government, the media, religious groups, academics, and the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales. It is argued that analogues of the spiritual abuse concept have taken the central role in the dominant framing of the Abé assassination, while the UC’s claim that the church is a victim of the crime has fallen on deaf ears in the public sphere for two reasons: 1.) antipathy towards NRMs among the media and the public; and 2.) a history of legally problematic spiritual sales practices and high profile court battles surrounding them, which have poisoned the well of public opinion against the UC.

Presenter bio: Adam Lyons teaches Japanese religions at the Université de Montréal. He is the author of Karma and Punishment: Prison Chaplaincy in Japan (Harvard Asia Center Press, 2021) and numerous articles and book chapters on Japanese religions. He is currently the principal investigator of a multi-year research project dealing with the rise and fall of new religious movements in Japan. The project is supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.