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Comment by warabe | Hacker News Reader

1. they have caused a variety of social problems, including dozens of civil and criminal lawsuits

2. they have close ties to North Korea. When they met with North Korean leader Kim, it is estimated that as much as $4.5 billion was given to North Korea as donations. This means that the Unification Church is also part of the source of funds for North Korea's nuclear missiles.

3. The Unification Church's doctrine is very anti-Japanese and Korean nationalismistic. For example, according to their dogma, Japan, as an Eva country, must devote all of its wealth to Korea, and the language of all nations must be unified in Korean, etc. Please note that these anti-Japanese doctrine has actually caused damage like high donations.

After all, from the Japanese perspective, the Unification Church's problem is not just a religious issue, but also a security threat.

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Isn't it odd that a nationalist Japanese politician was associated with a nationalist Korean group?

I scoured articles trying to understand this, too! Is it simply the intersection of money/free volunteer labor and politics where money just wins?

On the other hand we have something similar in the USA so who am I to judge? :)

One party in our two party system appears to have lots of Russian connections now for some reason, and this does not bother most of their supporters which has approximately 45-50 percent of the population behind it. In past years this would have led to claims about treason or something similar from the same party, the path from Nixon to now it appears the only change has been how public the cooperation between the GOP leadership and countries openly antagonistic to the USA, i.e. Nixon/Kissinger with North Vietnam, Reagan/Bush with Iran and Trump with Russia.

The history is even weirder: check out the story of Kishi Nobusuke[0], the class A war crimminal who brought the Unification Church into the Japanese political mainstream. Also the Yakuza. Also he's Abe's grandad.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobusuke_Kishi

It made more sense during the Cold War because they were all very anti-communist, no idea when and why the Unification Church is now supportive of North Korea.

Sun Myung Moon used fight against communism as a tool to establish a close relationship with LDP. Please refer to the article by Asahi shinbun. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14693688 Kishi Nobusuke, Shinzo Abe's grandfather, and Sun Myung Moon together found IFVC(International Federation for Victory over Communism).

Long story short, Japanese politicians should have known better.

Yes and no. It is odd only in the sense that the actions contradict the rhetoric. But both parties are still achieving their own goals and the cooperation does not cancel out that goal.

We often think of nationalism purely as the dark side of in-group/out-group dynamics scaled up to the size of an entire country. They are, but there's a dark, darker, yet darker side to this. The driving force behind those dynamics is a desire to purge the in-group of perceived weakness. There are plenty of reasons for a Korean person to hate Japanese people, or vice versa, but the reason that nationalists will consistently pick is that the out-group is "inferior". War crimes, national insults, and so on are all just window-dressing to that core claim.

This same dynamic also applies to things you would not consider to be even in the same postal code as right-wing nationalism. Think about how much self-policing and internal policing happens in niche subcultures online to purge them of perceived weakness, and how many of the perpetrators of those purges are not much different from their targets. Nationalists care more about punishing their own citizens than fighting the enemy.

1. Roe v Wade?

2. There are many evangelical churches in the US that send money to dictatorships, for example, [1], [2] , I can collect you a longer list.

3. This point is clearly very specific to Japan, I can't find a bijection within a few minutes.

But, we aren't that different , really.

1. https://nnoc.org/pastors-for-peace-continue-support-to-cuba/

2. https://juicyecumenism.com/2019/11/13/churches-supporting-ve...

Edit: Spacing

The bijection you are looking for might be the evangelical groups in the US (including some politicians) who support Israel because they believe that if all jews return there, the eschaton will begin. Think what you will about their goals, it is difficult to reconcile the literal apocalypse as "good for America."

3. Yes, this is very unique problem in Japan and that's why it is difficult to see this issue.

> But, we aren't that different , really.

I am not sure if I understand your point. Both U.S. and Japan have relatively loose regulation against cult groups, but as a Japanese citizen, I think this situation should be changed.

>[1] The church is pretty small only making up about 27 people and was mainly sending medical supply's and food to the island not funding what you may call a "dictatorships" They were mostly advocating for the us to remove its blockade on cube and reestablish relations with the island

>[2] more of the same just church's sending aid to a country that's in economic turmoil the article title is blatant fear mongering

If you understand how Cuba works, you will get why this is the same as funding the government, not the people. The blockade in Cuba is more internal than external. There is plenty of resources online that shows the human rights violations, persecution, murders and incarcerations, the Cuban regimen have been doing for decades, and continue doing.

The fact that we aren't that different does not negate the fact that the problem needs to be solved.

I agree, I was just suggesting is not that different. The problem should be addressed in both places.

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