Reiwa 4 (Wa) No. 17536 Damages Claim Case

In 2022, a female former follower filed a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court against the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church), seeking approximately 32 million yen in damages. She claimed that over decades, the church employed manipulative "spiritual sales" tactics to coerce her into excessive donations, causing financial ruin and emotional distress. The trial concluded on March 27, 2025, with the court ruling in her favor. The court found the church's fundraising methods illegal and ordered it to pay the full claimed amount, affirming that systematic psychological pressure constituted an unlawful act. This was one of the first major judgments against the group after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked a national reckoning.

The Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff on March 27, 2025, ordering the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification to pay approximately 32 million yen in damages. The court recognized that the organization's practices were illegal and a systematic violation of the victim's rights.

The core legal question was whether the Unification Church's coordinated "spiritual sales" tactics—instilling fear of ancestral curses to extract large donations—amounted to illegal coercion under the Civil Code, thus entitling the plaintiff to damages for mental suffering and financial loss.

The ruling intensified public and political pressure on the Japanese government to strictly regulate the church. It set a legal precedent for numerous similar lawsuits, encouraged more victims to come forward, and accelerated parliamentary discussions on revoking the group's religious corporation status, significantly impacting Japan-South Korea relations due to the church's origins.