In the spring of 1992, Japan’s senior intelligence officials made a fairly standard decision to deny entry to Reverend Moon Sun-myung, the late founder of South Korea’s Unification Church, on the grounds that he had previously served in US prison for tax evasion.
Shortly afterwards, though, the religious leader sailed through security checks to enter Tokyo with “a special permission” to meet lawmakers. Later that year, the justice ministry admitted that Shin Kanemaru, who at the time was the most powerful political figure in the governing Liberal Democratic party, had intervened on Moon’s behalf.
The close historic ties between the LDP and the Korean church, widely known but rarely discussed in public, are now firmly back in the spotlight after the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe last month.