Fumio Kishida is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2021 to 2024. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1993. Kishida previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017 and as acting Minister of Defense in 2017. From 2017 to 2020, he also chaired the LDP Policy Research Council.
Daishiro Yamagiwa is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. He served as Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization under the cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida from October 2021 to October 2022.
Taro Kono is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister for Digital Transformation from 2022 to 2024. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he previously served as Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform from 2015 to 2016 and from 2020 to 2021, and was the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He is also a member of the House of Representatives representing Kanagawa's 15th district since 1996.
Satoshi Ninoyu is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, and served as a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet.
Shinjirō Koizumi is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister of the Environment from September 2019 to October 2021. He also serves as a Member of the House of Representatives for the Liberal Democratic Party. He is the second son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the younger brother of actor Kotaro Koizumi.
The Suga Cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga from 16 September 2020 to 4 October 2021. The government was a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito and controlled both the upper and lower houses of the National Diet.
The 2021 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election was held on 29 September 2021 to elect the next President of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and Prime Minister of Japan. Fumio Kishida was elected to lead the party and assumed the premiership on 4 October. He led the party into the 2021 Japanese general election.
The First Kishida Cabinet was the 100th Cabinet of Japan. Formed by Fumio Kishida on October 4, 2021, it had 21 members, including three women. Two ministers, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, retained their posts from the previous cabinet. The government is a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito who controlled both the upper and lower houses of the National Diet.
Kōchikai was a leading faction within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), founded by bureaucrat-turned-politician Hayato Ikeda in 1957. The faction has produced five prime ministers, two LDP presidents, and a large number of cabinet officeholders. The faction was officially dissolved on January 23, 2024 after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to dissolve the faction in the aftermath of a political funds scandal.
General elections were held in Japan on 27 October 2024 due to the early dissolution of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet, by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Voting took place in all constituencies, including proportional blocks, to elect all 465 members of the House of Representatives.
On 8 July 2022, Shinzo Abe, a former prime minister of Japan and serving member of the Japanese House of Representatives, was assassinated while speaking at a political event outside Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara City, Nara Prefecture. Abe was delivering a campaign speech for a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidate when he was fatally shot by 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami with an improvised firearm. Abe was transported via medical helicopter to Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara, where he was pronounced dead.
Tetsuya Yamagami is a Japanese man who has admitted to assassinating Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, on 8 July 2022. A resident of Nara, he was arrested at the scene of the assassination. He was 41 years old, had no prior criminal history, and was unemployed at the time of his arrest.
The National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales is a non-profit anti-cult association established in May 1987, comprising about 300 lawyers in Japan. It is specialized in providing legal assistance for victims of cult-related frauds, known as spiritual sales (霊感商法) in Japan, from religious organizations, primarily the Unification Church (UC), as well as advocating preventive measures against the malpractices.
Shūkyō nisei (宗教2世), literally 'religion second generation', is a Japanese phrase, which refers to children being raised by their parents with a strong religious beliefs. These children may be forced to practice the same religion against their will by their parents. They are also called karuto nisei or nisei shinja. These children are reportedly often challenged by hardships, such as child neglect, child abuse and lack of psychological, financial, academic, and social independence because of their religious parents and the predatory practices of the religious organization. While shūkyō nisei are a longstanding social issue in Japan, the Japanese government has been accused of inaction. Within the Unification Church, children born to the parents married in church sponsored mass wedding ceremonies are called the shukufuku nisei.
On 15 April 2023, a pipe bomb exploded near Fumio Kishida, the 101st Prime Minister of Japan, who came to the fishing port of Saikazaki, Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, in the Kansai region to give a campaign stump speech for the 2023 Wakayama 1st district by-election.
On 21 March 2023, Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister of Japan, visited Ukraine. This was the first visit to Ukraine by the Prime Minister since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sayuri Ogawa is the pseudonym of a Japanese woman who was a former follower of the Unification Church (UC). She left her parents and the church at the age of 20 after suffering sexual harassment and religious abuse. Since the assassination of Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan, on 8 July 2022, she has become an anti-cult activist, appearing in government hearings and media interviews to address issues related to the malpractices of new religious organisations, particularly concerning the welfare of shūkyō nisei. Ogawa is a shūkyō nisei, specifically a "blessed second generation" (祝福二世) or "child of god" (神の子), as she was born to a couple paired by the UC in its mass wedding.
Eito Suzuki is a pseudonymous Japanese investigative journalist who covers new religious movements in the country. His primary area of editorial coverage is fraudulent missionary activities and the relationship between religious organizations and major political parties, primarily the Unification Church (UC) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
The 2024Liberal Democratic Party presidential election was held on 27 September 2024 to elect the next president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan for a three-year term.
The Unification Church in Japan was criticized by the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales for being involved in several controversies including “Spiritual sales”, unlawful adoption practices and a change of name to mask its purposes, according to reports. The Unification Church was founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954 in South Korea. Moon claimed to have had a vision of Jesus at age 16, prompting him to preach a new doctrine starting in 1946 in North Korea. After fleeing to South Korea, he established the church. It expanded to Japan in 1958, helped by the Cold War's anti-communist climate, connecting with Japanese politicians and establishing the Asian People's Anti-Communist League. The reunification of Korea and anti-communism were the main goals of the Unification Church.
