Kirk here with another installment in my not-very-popular Kumamoto-Moonie series. This one is about the Kumamoto International Association (熊本県国際協会) and connections of two Kumamoto-based LDP politicians to the Moonies.
According to the RKK report linked to below, a representative from a human rights group based in Fukuoka came to Kumamoto to ask the association, which is led by Governor Kabashima, to cut ties with Unification Church (Moonie; 統一教会) affiliated groups. I have a few thoughts about this:
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I’m not innocent. When I was head of international programs at my university, I served as auditor (監査; one of two people who checked the financial records of the organization). It wasn’t my job to check to see if all member organizations were on the up and up but, nonetheless, I attended meetings as someone affiliated the organization but was completely oblivious to this issue.
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It seems odd to me that someone from outside of Kumamoto had to make a trip here to point out the problem. I think it’s fine for “outsiders” to raise issues but why did no “insiders” (people based in Kumamoto) raise a red flag before this? I didn’t notice before the prime minister’s assassination but is it really the case that not a single person noticed and took the initiative to say “Hey, you guys need to look into this”?
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In the RKK article, the prefecture is quoted as answering that they “will look into the matter” (対応を検討する). The article doesn’t report them as saying “we are already looking into the matter” (対応について検討中) but that they WILL look into it. Isn’t it a bit late to respond as though you are hearing about this for the first time? Granted, I myself was oblivious to the issue when I was associated with this organization. But, it’s been quite some time now since the Moonie issue came to light and the connections of the groups that caused the guy from Fukuoka to visit you (groups I’ve already written about on this page) have been receiving scrutiny.
The article ends with reports of two local politicians that admitted ties to the Moonies as a result of the LDPs survey or whatever it was: KIHARA Minoru (木原 稔; Kumamoto District No. 1) and NISHINO Daisuke (西野 太亮; Kumamoto District No. 2). Nishino is a new guy who recently beat the veteran NODA Takeshi. Kihara is of much higher status in the LDP, and quite far to the right. I’ve written about his extreme right views in the past: https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0QvXTxxutw1zri6N2UhymYVzTihNj25SpShtXJ49WXY4oAoQtWCcesu8JSkX3bvTAl
Kihara admitted to giving a lecture (or speech) at a Moonie-affiliated group. This fits with the pattern I’ve observed of far right politicians (including Abe) being close to the Moonies.