Expert Panel to Meet on Unification Church Questioning

Tokyo, Nov. 17 (Jiji Press)--An expert panel of the Cultural Affairs Agency will meet as early as Monday to offer advice on questions to be asked during a planned investigation into the controversial religious group known as the Unification Church, it was learned Thursday.

Culture minister Keiko Nagaoka will consult the panel, the Religious Juridical Persons Council, on the question items.

Upon approval from the council, the government will exercise the right to ask the questions to the religious group, officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, under the religious corporation law. After investigating the group, the government will make a decision on whether to file with a court for procedures to disband the group.

The 1995 revision to the religious corporation law set up a provision on the right to demand reports from religious groups and ask them questions. Meanwhile, the government has never exercised the right.

Nagaoka told a press conference on Friday that the government decided to exercise the questioning right to investigate the Unification Church based on the criteria set by another expert panel of the agency on Nov. 8.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]