Economic revitalization minister resigns after Unification Church scrutiny

Finally!

He should be happy. His rewards lie in the afterlife where he gets to spend eternity crouched at the feet of Rev. Moon listening to his ministrations for eternity.

Daishiro Yamagiwa, minister for economic revitalization, said he did not want the allegations to "affect the parliamentary debate", without naming the church.

Yamagiwa failed to revitalize the Japanese economy, but did vitalize the balance sheet of the Unification Church and his offshore accounts.

minister of economic revitalization

Might not only be his ties to the Church that brought about his departure

buua

Today 07:05 am JST

I hope that this will have a domino effect.

Me too but until there's a single, unified opposition party in Japan like Labour in the UK or the Republicans in the US the same old LDP crooks will keep getting elected and choosing ineffective, compromised prime ministers. Whoever the replacements are for Kishida and co they won't be any better.

I hope that this will have a domino effect.

Me too but until there's a single, unified opposition party in Japan like Labour in the UK or the Republicans in the US the same old LDP crooks will keep getting elected and choosing ineffective, compromised prime ministers. Whoever the replacements are for Kishida and co they won't be any better.

This right there is the crux of the problem. The LDP musical chairs game will just continue in this 1 party dictatorship

The politician had confirmed it was him in the image, but said in parliament on Monday that his memory about "the photo with her... is unclear".

Convenient memory! Typical for politicians in a bind!

LDP probably thinks that because this lackey has fallen on his sword for the party, everyone will move on.

They are all knee-deep in this mess.

The first sentence is misleading:

A Japanese minister resigned on Monday

Corrected:

A Japanese minister resigned on Monday from his position as Economic Revitalization Minister but still maintains his elected position as a member of the National House of Representatives for Kanagawa.

Daishiro Yamagiwa, minister for economic revitalization, said he did not want the allegations to "affect the parliamentary debate", without naming the church.

As someone still in the House of Representatives, he will still "affect the parliamentary debate".

If you want to be a politician, then work for the benefit of the public, can get your massive just salary don’t sell your soul to a semi quasi religious group or business groups you are there getting big money to improve my life ideally everyone’s life. What is wrong with you people?

At least something good came out of Abe's assassination.

The politician had confirmed it was him in the image, but said in parliament on Monday that his memory about "the photo with her... is unclear".

Convenient memory! Typical for politicians in a bind!

"I was drunk and don't remember" excuse?

I'm not for this church but unless they are going to go over every donation with the same fine tooth comb then this is a witch hunt.... suddenly anything to do with a Church that asks for money is bad? They all ask for donations, sure this one seemed a little extreme but the government needs to focus on bigger things or stop churches asking for money or allowing them donate... all of them.

At least something good came out of Abe's assassination

lots of things sadly are now talked about openly it took a nut case to shoot a ex ex Pm shot in the neck. Be nice if it was normal to have discussions about government policy without death. But that’s a no no in Japan.

No details on the purpose or outcomes of those meeting given of course.

The politician said Monday he planned to stay on as a lawmaker.

well…..I’m sure we can all sleep well at night then.

is that supposed to be an inspiring comment or something?

Give it a year and he'll be back in the good graces with a new post. Just a PR stunt to make it look like the LDP is actually doing something which we all know they are not!

The right thing to do, you can't serve two masters at the same time.

Don’t know what a revitalisezed Minister is guess it’s a made up position for a son or cousin. I’ve not felt any revitalisation from this ministry. So no big loss his gone, I hope he serves me at my local 7-11 then for once he actually does a service.

Aly Rustom

Today 07:34 am JSTT

This right there is the crux of the problem. The LDP musical chairs game will just continue in this 1 party dictatorship

I think the crux of the problem is money. LDP politicians have hoarded up piles of cash over the generations, mostly by dubious means, and it costs so much to run as an election candidate that not many outside their sleazy little caste can compete with them. Opposition parties can't help much with campaign funding, so no one party can field as many candidates as the LDP or, QED, win a majority by themselves. This means collaboration with other parties they have little in common with ideologically, and compromising on their election manifestos so much that no one trusts what they say. Throw a few billion yen at the CDPJ and things might change.

Agree simon

I don't care much about his faith.

The problem is that Yamagiwa kept lying about his involvement in the Church despite warnings. Just for another, the screening on candidates for the cabinet portfolio didn't work at all. More will fall to resignation, I assume.

It’s too bad, I guess this means there will now be no economic revitalization in Japan.

So this has been going on for months now and all that time this guy has just been sitting there in silence presumably hoping people just won’t notice his ties, and attendance at meetings. Bizarre.

"I deeply regret that my attendance at several meetings of the organization has resulted in giving credit to the said organization," he said.

What does he think happens when a serving lawmaker attends several meetings with an organisation? The ignorance, or sheer contempt this guy has for the Japanese public, is staggering.

I notice he doesn’t regret attending the meetings, just that it gave credit to the cult of corruption masquerading as a church.

Economic revitalization 

Well I’ve searched on the internet and can’t find one example of Economic revitalization so he should go didn’t achieve anything close to his job title. But I’m sure he will be back maybe revitalization of Inka minister.

Seems pretty clear that the Jiminto party is draining the "swamp" and is using one's affiliation with the Unification Church to justify their actions. I wouldn't be surprised if the LDP will continue to use this tactic to place any politician in check.

I think the crux of the problem is money. LDP politicians have hoarded up piles of cash over the generations, mostly by dubious means, and it costs so much to run as an election candidate that not many outside their sleazy little caste can compete with them. Opposition parties can't help much with campaign funding, so no one party can field as many candidates as the LDP or, QED, win a majority by themselves. This means collaboration with other parties they have little in common with ideologically, and compromising on their election manifestos so much that no one trusts what they say. Throw a few billion yen at the CDPJ and things might change.

The funny thing is that their hoard of corrupt wealth is altogether minuscule to what the Unification Church truly holds. Japanese political elites live on the food scraps from the Church's corrupt dealings worldwide. This shows how pathetic and poor Japanese political elites who scream anti-Korean/anti-foreigner rhetorics among their Japanese voters but do dark dealings with "filthy barbarians" in the shadow.

Hypocrisy at the highest order!

 Japanese political elites live on the food scraps from the Church's corrupt dealings worldwide. This shows how pathetic and poor Japanese political elites who scream anti-Korean/anti-foreigner rhetorics among their Japanese voters but do dark dealings with "filthy barbarians" in the shadow.

Hypocrisy at the highest order!

THIS!!! Well said!

Seems pretty clear that the Jiminto party is draining the "swamp" and is using one's affiliation with the Unification Church to justify their actions.

Ah no, he is staying on as a lawmaker.

This is standard out of the LDP playbook smoke and mirrors- "resign" (thereby giving the illusion that the problem has been solved), stay out of sight for a while, then return.

This is standard out of the LDP playbook smoke and mirrors- "resign" (thereby giving the illusion that the problem has been solved), stay out of sight for a while, then return.

Yup. Rinse and repeat. no surprises there

 Did they draw sticks to pick who would become the sacrificial lamb?

He's not though is he? He'll just be rotated to a different position. J politics 101.

One down, 25 to go.

I know the Unification church issue is what is in the headline. The throwaway line at the end was what caught my eye. The cabinet minister of the economy for Japan is a veterinarian...

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/10/fce65f72ec95-urgent-japan-economy-minister-to-step-down-over-unification-church-source.html

For the life of me, I can't understand why so many educated Japanese would join a 'religion' that was blatantly created as a psy-op by the South Korean intelligence service.

 The cabinet minister of the economy for Japan is a veterinarian...

Its ok. The finance minister, Aso doesn't know how to make a sale at a supermarket.

The former health minister Yanagisawa described women as "birth-giving machines"

And a few years ago the cyber-security minister admitted that he has never used a computer and didn't know what a USB drive was.

Competence is not a strong point of the LDP

Economic revitalization minister resigns after Unification Church scrutiny

If this wasn’t so serious it would make a great opening line for a joke.

I think the crux of the problem is money. LDP politicians have hoarded up piles of cash over the generations, mostly by dubious means, and it costs so much to run as an election candidate that not many outside their sleazy little caste can compete with them. Opposition parties can't help much with campaign funding, so no one party can field as many candidates as the LDP or, QED, win a majority by themselves. This means collaboration with other parties they have little in common with ideologically, and compromising on their election manifestos so much that no one trusts what they say. Throw a few billion yen at the CDPJ and things might change.

Very spot on Simon! I would like to say that these campaigns around the streets and televised on air are mostly to attract the attention of senior citizens and therefore the one thing the opposition party can do is utilize the internet which reaches a broader audience. The problem I see here is the average young citizen isn't inclined to look up these debates as most of them are not interested in politics. I don't specifically know how effective the South Korean campaign was to attract young voters, but it seemed they had many following the topic through the use of SNS platforms. They most likely were also interested in the topic because the effects were shown in their daily lives and in schools/ careers. When fresh college grads in Japan realize they have massive student loans to pay off, their company only pays them 35 mil yen, the rent they pay is now 100,000 yen for a 1K, and all other aspects are simply unaffordable, they may come to the conclusion to finally vote. Hoping for a brighter future...

3.5 mil yen

Yamagiwa is just tip of iceberg.

Many LDP politicians who repeat excuses or cheap falsehood about relation with Unification Church as same as Yamagiwa still stay same position.

"Deep relation" between LDP central figures including former PM Suga or Abe and Unification Church are not yet explained. 

Present PM Kishida denied to probe about policy agreement between LDP politicians and Unification Church group.

Aso has been unusually quiet about all of this, that’s suspicious.

buuaToday  07:05 am JST

I hope that this will have a domino effect.

I wish this would be investigated in the US as well. Moonies have had too much influence in American politics as well.

Better late than never, of course. On the other side, when the responsible minister for economic revitalization quits, then of course any economic revitalization is also halted, stopped or at least postponed. And that side effect will cost all of us more than this guy his now slightly broken political career but at same income level. He can still sleep very well and with a smiling face with this knowledge.

 On the other side, when the responsible minister for economic revitalization quits, then of course any economic revitalization is also halted, stopped or at least postponed.

I'm sure he wasn't doing anything useful, anyway.

maybe that's why J-economy ain't working: even the minister for economic revitalization is under Unification Church control

What I still can't fathom is how the right wing nutjobs get on every piece of social media, including here, and STILL defend Abe and the LDP in general after it has come out that the church wants Japan to be subservient to Korea.

Moon's theology teaches that his homeland Korea is the "Adam country", home of the master race destined to rule the world. Japan is the "fallen Eve country". The dogma teaches Eve had sexual relations with Satan and then seduced Adam, which caused mankind to fall from grace (original sin), while Moon was appointed to bring mankind to salvation. Japan must be subservient to Korea.[40][41] This was used to indoctrinate their Japanese followers into offering every single material belonging to Korea via the church.[42]

UC considered it was an honour for a Japanese woman to be married to a Korean man, like an abandoned dog being picked up by a prince. If the Japanese followers wanted to leave their partners of the mass wedding or the church, they would be told that they be damned to the "hell of hell"

Assassination of Shinzo Abe - Wikipedia

So now the UC is calling Japanese women abandoned dogs (meaning Japanese women are B*tches)

And the right wing here is ok with that.

According to research by **Nikkan Gendai, ten out of twenty members in the Fourth Abe Cabinet had connections to the UC,[31] but these connections were largely ignored by Japanese journalists.[32] After the assassination, Japanese defence minister Nobuo Kishi, Abe's younger brother, was forced to disclose that he had been supported by the UC in past elections.**

So HALF of the LDP and HALF of Abe's cabinet INCLUDING his younger brother and DEFENCE MINISTER of Japan was being supported by a church which calls Japanese women abandoned DOGS, says Japan must be subservient to Korea, and this is OK?????

Nikkan Gendai research also comes from the same wikipedia source as above- sorry for the lack of clarification.

Bow and move on, Japan is a never ending circle of apologies and regretfullness. Nothing is ever done to anyone with money or TV fame.

"When fresh college grads in Japan realize they have massive student loans to pay off, their company only pays them 35 mil yen..."

Perhaps three and a half million per annum?

How many more ministers need to resign over the scandalous UC?