WEBVTT - The Assassination of Shinzo Abe: The Reckoning 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:11.160 All media. It's it could happen here. The thing that's 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.320 happening is that Shinzo Wahabe is still dead one year on. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:16.680 That man has not gone back from the dead. He 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.000 is still absolutely the most assassinated man of twenty twenty three, 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.479 twenty twenty two. That well, you know, honestly, given how 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:26.720 assassinated he is, we're giving him the credit for being 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.800 the most assassinated man of twenty twenty three. And what's 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.159 interesting about this assassination, and we talked about I talked 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.680 about this really briefly in my sort of intro thing 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:40.000 to the last episode that we ran about the Abbe assassination. 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:45.400 But this has been maybe the most successful political assassination 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.440 not done by the CIA in the last like seventy years, 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:55.440 like absolutely stunningly incredibly successful political assassination because specifically of 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.320 the political impact that the assassination has had on the 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.880 Unification Church probably better known as the Moonies, and how 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.639 it's been forcing the sort of Unification Church aligned ruling 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.640 Liberal Democratic Party of Japan to like have a serious 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:16.640 of embarrassing scandals where they revealed their like incredible intertwinement 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.960 with the church apparatus and all of the culture they've 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.120 been doing. And with me to talk about this is 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.160 Alisa Majub, who's an ex Unification Church member who got 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.280 out and who works with Deeprogramming Imperialism, which is a 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.600 group that tells the sort of still untold story of 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:36.640 how the Unification Church has worked with the CIA and 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.880 the Korean CIA and enormous parts of the sort of 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.360 the apparatus of the American imperial war machine to cause 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.560 untold suffering on the world. Lisa, Welcome, Welcome to the show. Welcome, 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:47.199 welcome back. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:50.440 Thank you appreciate it. I'm glad to be back. 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:52.160 Yeah, so I'm excited to talk with you about this 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.920 because we didn't really There's been a lot of very 0:01:55.080 --> 0:02:01.880 very interesting stuff happening in the last couple of months 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.520 in Japan. But in order to do that, I think 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.560 we need to we need to sort of talk about 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:12.200 what this assassination was actually about. So the shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.720 killed Abe because he couldn't get to a He was 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.600 trying to kill a high ranking Unification Church guy and 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.440 he like couldn't get to him. And the reason he 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.480 was trying to do this is that his mom had 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.240 given I think like seventy thousand yen to the church. 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.360 I'm getting the number right, and had basically like, you know, 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.480 like this is I I yeah, I wanted to talk 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.880 to you a bit about this before we go into 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.640 more of the abbe stuff about how the church's financial 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.960 abuse works and how you know, like how how how 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.640 how how this person's mom was compelled to sort of 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:52.160 like literally give away all of their money to this cult. 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.120 Right, Well, I would say it's sort of multi pronged 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:58.079 approach that they use. 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.600 Uh, they'll basically, oh, gosh, okay. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.359 So one of the main things that they'll do is 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:06.880 they will charge people for ancestor liberation. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.320 Basically is that they'll say that. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.320 Your ancestors are going to go to heaven if you 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.680 pay us this amount of money. And they'll have people 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:20.080 do that for like generations and generations back in order 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.480 to have their ancestors go to heaven. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:25.000 They do other. 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.440 Spiritual sales, like the book. There was this one book 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.880 from years ago that they charged people exorbitant fees on 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.520 just because it was like some sort of like providential 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.840 book of some sort. So spiritual sales are definitely like. 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.360 A main focal point of this. 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.720 Another thing that will happen is that like they'll they'll 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.080 labor traffic people just straight up into like a lot 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.680 of the time they would do fundraising teams where they 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.320 would have people go out sell little trinkets and things 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.840 on the street or flowers and come back and then 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:00.680 give all that money to the cough of the church. 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.200 Another thing that they do is tithes. You're expected to 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.120 give a certain amount of your income basically to the church, 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.040 and if you don't, it's like they're not going to 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.840 be like they're there. It's like sort of you know, 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.440 like you need to do better because you're not you're 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.280 not doing enough for God kind of shit. So they 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:24.440 have like a myriad ways that they really push people 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:29.440 into spending money on them in their organizations, as well 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:34.960 as having a ton of very successful businesses and capital 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:39.160 ventures and whatnot. They they make guns, you name it, 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.520 and so it all sort of comes together to this 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.760 like very large wheelhouse of capital. 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.880 Yeah, and Japan's so so I think I should probably 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.479 I'm realizing I'm probably assuming that everyone who's listening to 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.320 this has listened to the previous stuff we've done on 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.360 the edification, and I don't know, I don't know how 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.719 true that is. So I guess we should talk a 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:05.240 little bit. We should back up a little bit and 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.840 talk about just what the Unification Church is, and I 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.000 guess also the importance of Japan to it, because Yeah, 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.680 for everything that I've understood, Japan's like, you know, like 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:17.680 they have a bunch of sort of businesses that they 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.920 run in Korea, but Japan's kind of like their chief 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.080 financial nexus. Like the last thing I saw, I think 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.599 it was like like they directed like one hundred million 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.520 dollars how Japan in the last few years. 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.000 Yeah, they get they get so much. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.040 That's their main it's their main financial powerhouse within the church. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.880 And part of that is because the church claims that 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.840 because of the occupation of Korea that Japanese members have 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:48.440 to pay more indemnity monetarily, so everything with like you know, 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.159 all of the spiritual sales and stuff are just like 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:55.320 exorbitantly higher for those members, and that is just an 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.760 easy way for them to make a lot more money. 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:00.640 Yeah, which which is always a part of this thing. 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.320 I thought is really interesting because you know, the church, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.240 and we've talked about this sort of at length in 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:13.039 other places, but they are like hardcore right wing anti communists. Yeah, 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.240 and like you know, have backed a lot of I 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.480 mean just desk squads all over the world they backed 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.159 they like they wound up backing pole Pot because like 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.680 doing a RAN contrac twice wasn't enough for them, but 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.400 a bunch Yeah. Yeah, it's like on once you once, once, 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.200 you once you've once you've done a RAN contract multiple times, 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.320 like you've got to there are very few places you 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.920 can go other than like into pole Pot. But I 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.240 think I think there's there's an interesting kind of game 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.039 they're playing here because you know, on the one hand, 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.880 so the party they're allied with in Japan, I mean 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.960 there's like several parties they work with, but their biggest 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.120 backer in the government is is the Liberal Democratic Party. 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.600 And you know, if you want to hear me talk 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:00.960 about the Liberal Democratic Party for a long long time, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.760 go listen to my Kishi episodes on Behind the Bastards, 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.960 because that guy did one. So Masuki Kishi is the 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.280 founder of the Little Democratic Party. He is a just 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:19.120 horrific war criminal. I did like mass enslavement stuff like that, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.720 Like truly truly awful guy. He's like he's also the 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:24.560 guy who just was in charge of like running the 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:30.400 Japanese war machine dream World War two, and his grandson 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:34.120 is is shinzo Abe. But there's just I think it's 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.600 this interesting dynamic where you have, on the one hand, 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.400 the Moonies are allying with these right wing guys who 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.640 are either just straight up like like a lot of 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.640 these people they're allying with are straight up like Nanjing denialists, right, 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.320 they're like, you know, they're they're there are people whose 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.160 lines on Japanese colonization or either that it was good 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.480 or we didn't do any crimes. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:54.040 Right, Yeah. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.840 Yeah, So it comes off pretty pretty, you know, bold 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.160 faced and ironic and just very obvious that this is 0:07:59.160 --> 0:07:59.800 a money ploy. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:02.720 Yeah yeah. But but I think it's interesting kind of 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.480 politically too, because you know, like if you if you 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:07.960 on the one hand pushed Anihilism, but then on the 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.280 other hand, you turn around and you're the only people 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.640 going like, hey, look at all these crimes your government did, 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.240 Like don't you owe like Korea so much? I feel 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.000 like it's like it's a really like terrible and like 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:25.080 it's just unbelievably cynical way of exploiting like exploiting just 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.680 the horror of Japanese imperialism to get. 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:33.400 Yeah, yeah, it's it's very underhanded, especially giving that I 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.120 feel like there is been some evidence that I mean 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:41.360 at least early church members and those around them may 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:46.000 have been collaborators at the time as well. So yeah, 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.640 it's very disingenuine and a completely twisted way to go 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.920 about anything. But people people buy into it and heavily. 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.560 So yeah, one of the ways they've they sort of 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.320 done this is allying with the Liberal Democratic Party. So 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.600 nobodys take Kishi, who again is AB's grandfather, like, is 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.400 the guy who brought the Unification Church into the party. 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:12.080 And this was kind of a controversial thing because okay 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:14.360 it was. It was kind of a controversial thing, not 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.280 because the Unification Church is a cult, but because the 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:21.079 Unification Church is Korean, which is like a dynamic that's 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.160 at play. He and this whole thing, which is you 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.480 have this weird okay. So there's like there's like two 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:28.800 kinds of people who are anti Unification Church in Japan. 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.679 It's you have like the leftists who are anti Unification 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:33.840 Church because they're a cult and because they're you know, 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.640 like a sort of cat's Paul of American imperialism, and 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.240 then you have like these ultra right wingers who are like, 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.360 these people are Koreans and so we hate them, which 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.840 is like a I don't know, truly terrifying Japan dynamic. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:53.760 But Kishi's able to sort of overcome this and he okay, 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:55.120 So this is the part. I don't know if you 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.400 know more about this than I do. So every the 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:02.240 stuff that I've seen about this talks about the Unification 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:04.600 Church and the Yakuza kind of hammering out a deal 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.400 to allow the Unification Church to like do their specific 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.240 kinds of scams. And I've always assumed that Kishi brokeer 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:16.200 this because Noboshiki Kishi also is very very well connected 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.400 with the Yakuza. He's been connected with the yakuza since 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.560 like the twenties and thirties, so I always assumed that 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.839 he brokeer this deal. But I'm not entirely sure. I 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:27.280 don't know. I don't know if you've run into anything 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:27.760 about it. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.480 So I know that some of it has to do 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:36.920 with Asami Kuboki, I believe, but I wouldn't be surprised 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:42.360 if initial links do come through Kishi. I wouldn't I 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.920 would not be surprised about that. I don't know where exactly, like, 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.199 you know, initially that would make sense. 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:50.280 That would make sense. 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.480 Honestly because like going back to the sort of end 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.199 of the Korean War and World War two. Uh, basically 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:03.079 how all these you know, prisoners that were class A 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:07.440 war criminals got you know, they got to let off 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.120 the books because they decided to work for America now. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:13.839 And and and basically. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.640 These guys were the first guys who started like funding 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:22.120 and financing and like supporting the church, uh, with like 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.800 the help of like MacArthur and stuff. And then MacArthur 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.600 of course is the one who got Moon out of prison. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:30.480 So yeah, I mean there's a lot of sort of 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.440 there's a lot of very very the the the LDP 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:38.240 as a party is sort of directly like like directly 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.000 it is formed by the Dulles brothers intervewing with the 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.080 sort of Japanese right and telling them like, you guys 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.400 all have to like, you guys all have to put 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.720 aside your differences and form this party so as to 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.880 stop like even like a vaguely centered left government from 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.319 coming to power. Right. Yeah, and the connections you are 0:11:55.320 --> 0:12:00.520 really deep, like kishi kishi literally sells Unification Church their 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.840 first building in Japan, and that building is like his residence. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.000 So they are eaten deep and in it for the 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:08.560 long haul. 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.880 Yeah and st. 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:13.400 Yeah. 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.520 Yeah, And this has been you know, sort of going 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.200 on for a very long time, even after like Chishi's 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:23.920 like specific kind of like fascist corruption faction kind of 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.920 eventually falls out of favor in like the eighties because 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.959 they they they kind a series of deals with the 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.040 Americans that are like too corrupt for the US that 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:39.520 ends with like ends with a fascist porn star I 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.520 like dry attempting to do a Kama Kazi run and 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.400 a Yaka is a boss by flying a plane into 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:49.320 his house, which is which is a whole thing. But 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.880 you know, so this kind of gets us to many 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.920 generations of LDP, which is the Liberal Democratic Party, which 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.400 has been the ruling party of Japan for most of 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.880 it's sort of modern history. Many generations did this go by, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.960 and you know there's there's I think a really incredible 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.880 symbiosis here where like the LDP has like consistently gotten 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.680 them out of trouble of like stuff that like like 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.839 they're they're you know, there's a famous example where Moon 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.040 like shouldn't have been able to enter Japan because he 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.600 had been convicted of a felony in the US. And 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:22.760 you know the and there's also like there's been a 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.800 series of investigations into the church that has just gotten 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:27.840 squashed because the LDP ye know. 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:30.320 Yeah, they're too powerful. 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:35.280 They're in, they're in with the guys who are running things. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:37.320 And I think this just kind of brings us to 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.360 the immediate Abbe stuff, which I think is really interesting, 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:45.400 which is that like Abbe, okay, so long ago, in 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.599 a galaxy, far far away dream Kishi's generation, the CIA 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.160 was like literally running LDP elections like this is the 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.640 CIA would go in with individual candidates and they would 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.400 go in to sort of manipulate the vote. They would 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.480 go in and they would have like CIA assets doing 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.360 canvassing for them. And what I think is really interesting 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.080 is that like from what I've seen, it seems like 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.080 abb basically replaced the CIA with the moonies in the 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.439 two thousands, where he was having the church do exactly 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.040 the same thing the CIA did of like like hey, 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.200 if you ally with us, we will, like you know, 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.920 we will like go district by district and campaign for 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:20.880 you and like use our influence networks. 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.160 It's funny how that keeps happening. 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:29.080 Yeah, hmm, Yeah, it's really the sort of long arc 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.760 of It's funny too because it's like like quite frankly 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.880 like at this point, like it from the CIA's point 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.920 of view, like it's utterly unclear to me if. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.480 It matters at all whether the LDP or like their 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.200 absolutely identical opposition party like comes into power. But there's 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.400 still just this kind of like like the ghost of 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.200 the CIA from like when they actually had to stop 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.440 the communists in like the cifty sixties and seventies, I 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.760 guess a bit through the eighties. It's just sort of 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.360 still there and still doing like all of this same 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:10.680 things that yeah, are y you know who else? Actually 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.800 I don't think they've ever advertised on this show, but 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.360 you know who probably wouldn't be that out of place 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.560 given the Reagan coin people. I don't know, it's it's ads, 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:33.400 it's we're doing them. I hope they don't suck and 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.080 we're back. Okay, So this is something I wanted to 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:40.080 ask you. How So, in the last few months, there's 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:45.000 been a lot of developments in terms of the reaction 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.400 to the Church in Japan and how the church has 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.600 been reacting to the sort of swings in public sentiment 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:51.640 that have been happening. So yeah, I guess I want 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:56.320 to ask how what's been happening inside the Japanese government 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.240 sense all of the stufface sort of been coming out. 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:06.640 So it seems to be that there has been quite 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:11.200 a kerfuffle because quite a few members of both the 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:13.680 LDP and other parties have ties. 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:14.560 To the Unification Church. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.280 So I've got some stats here, and forgive me if 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.280 these are not the most current. I tried my best 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.840 to find the most current, the most current numbers out 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.160 here about this, but I was having a little bit 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:28.920 of trouble due to translations. 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:31.680 So let's see. 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:37.280 I've got at least three hundred and thirty four Prefectural 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.560 Assembly members in Japan have had dealings with the Unification 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:42.920 Church or it's affiliates, with over eighty percent of them 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:48.080 belonging to the ruling LDP, according to Kyoto News, So 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:51.600 Prime Minister of Fumiyo Kushita said that the government was 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:53.680 in the final stage of considering whether to seek a 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:58.160 court order to disband the Unification Church. But also, you know, 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:03.040 his new cabinet well, they've got some ties, okay, at 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.960 least four lawmakers who admitted having ties to the church. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.040 The number of LVP lawmakers was ties to the churches 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:13.800 around one hundred and eighty, and the second Tenary General 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.560 has said that one hundred and seventy nine of the 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:21.919 three hundred and seventy nine parliamentarians reported with links to 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.639 the church and related organizations. And these relationships have ranged 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.440 from attending church events to accepting donations and receiving elections support. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.880 And then at least three hundred and thirty four prefectural 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:34.399 councils had contact. 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:35.800 With the UC in related orgs. 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.200 So there's a lot going on that basically is, there's 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.919 a lot that has come out about who is involved. However, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.159 the UC is still pretty much just denying everything. The 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.760 pre trial proceedings for Yamagami began on October thirteenth. It's 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.080 going to be closed door, so it'll probably be a 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.959 while a little bit until the information trickles out about that. 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.399 Hopefully they'll have some like I don't don't know if 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.560 like what closed door means in that specific situation, I 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.040 still have journalists in there, not hopefully, Yeah, but yeah, 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.960 a lot has been coming out and people have been 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:15.640 calling for a lot of change, it seems, but how 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.359 much is actually going to happen, especially when they're saying 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:21.480 now it's going to be like maybe one to three 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:27.399 years for the deliberation on the case for dissolving the church, 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:29.919 which means that the church will have ample time to 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.200 move all of its funds and set up new new 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:34.800 lines of money funneling. 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.560 Basically, yeah, which I think. Yeah, I don't know, like 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:43.160 I have I have very little faith that even even 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.560 this sort of like outswing of public pressure is going 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.080 to like actually seriously cause a liberal Democratic party to 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.320 like really go after the church because, like I mean, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.760 like Abe, like part of the reason Abi got assassinated 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.280 was that, like I think, like in twenty twenty two, 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:01.679 he he get he like he was like he like 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.159 said a video of of like of a speech like 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:08.440 to a like to a manuline unification church event. I 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.639 think it was the same one that it might have 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.040 been the same one that Trump said it too. Maybe 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:14.440 it was it was a different event, but like yeah, 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:16.720 like that, I don't know, I have a difficult time, 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.320 I don't know kind of like believing that they're that 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.680 like this like, even if this crackdown does come, that's 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.359 going to be effective. I don't know what your thoughts 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:27.720 on that. 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:33.600 I'm excited that there is some movement in that direction. However, 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:38.600 I do worry that it won't really make as much 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.400 of a dent into the functioning of the movement as 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.520 some people think it could, given that there seems to 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.280 be a lot of time for them to recuperate funds 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.040 and they've been doing a lot of things that seems 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.600 to make up for funds, as well as the fact 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.119 that they already just have so much money and so 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.520 many funds in the first place. It's hard to say 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.480 how much they even have and how much this would 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.960 make a dent into it were it to happen, So it's. 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:06.639 Hard to say. 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.560 And I also do worry that that'll just sort of 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:16.560 incentivize them to sort of further radicalize people in a 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.520 very dangerous far right direction and sort of going into that, 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.879 there have been some sort of recent developments within the 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.600 church since all of this has come out, basically, and 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.600 people are calling for some sort of justice and some 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:35.080 sort of you know, understanding of what's going on, which 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:39.840 you know, the church continues to deny but recently Hawk Jahan, 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.880 who is now the leader of the Mainline Church, has 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.640 been meeting with the youth in multiple countries, and recently 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.080 at Japan, she sat down and told them that they 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.879 are a Kamakazi group basically to save Japan in the world. 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.919 So I can't imagine it's ever really like, it never 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:01.639 has ended well when somebody says that to an occult 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.080 leader says that to their constituents, it never goes well. 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:10.399 And you know, acts of violence against oneself like self 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:15.240 emolation or other things murder have not been you know, 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:19.080 out of the realm of things that people in the 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:20.879 Unification of Church have done in the past. 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.680 So it does kind of worry me. And she's actually 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:27.080 hat Jahan is actually going to be. 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:32.720 Meeting I believe it's the weekend of the Seventh uh 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.720 in Vegas with the Youth of America. So I wonder 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.000 if she's going to be saying similar things at that event. 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.760 Yeah, I mean, that wouldn't surprise me, it would. 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.080 Seem I have a feeling it seems to be since 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.320 she's been going around and meeting, because she's also met 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.159 with the youth of Europe in the Middle East, that 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:52.440 there's like a concerted effort here to sort of get 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:57.359 youth engagement up, which leads me into a couple of 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:02.399 other things here. I know that for a couple of 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.000 years now, the Global Peace Foundation, which is under presst 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:09.440 and Moon, has been involved with like different like music 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.959 festivals and things with K pop artists and stuff. But 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:16.760 recently there was actually an event this year is supposed 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.320 to happen called twenty twenty three Korean Dream Festa for 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:24.200 Korean United and then the original poster it was said 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.240 that it was Global Peace Foundation that was one of 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.560 the groups that was leading this. A lot of fans 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:32.800 have soaken up, and I know at least one of 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:33.360 the groups. 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.400 Has pulled out, so clearly at. 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:39.280