Tansa and Newstapa’s joint investigation found that the Unification Church implemented similar strategies in Japan and South Korea.

Our series “The True Mother Files: How a Cult Religion Infiltrated Japan’s Ruling Party” is the product of a joint investigation with the nonprofit investigative media Korea Center for Investigative Journalism (KCIJ) Newstapa. Based in South Korea, Newstapa doesn’t shy away from investigating the powerful.

During the administration of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Newstapa reported on corruption during Yoon’s time serving as a prosecutor. Newstapa’s office was even raided by public prosecutors, in response to which citizens rallied to support the outlet, sending donations, messages of encouragement, and even kimbap seaweed rice rolls.

Newstapa’s investigation into the Unification Church revealed that, just as in Japan, the church sought to expand its reach by infiltrating political circles. And it continued to guide members to swear absolute loyalty to church leader Han Hak-ja even after her arrest.

In this article, Tansa examines the Unification Church’s aims based on Newstapa’s reporting.

2,700 believers squeezed into sanctuary

Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja was arrested by a special prosecutor in South Korea on September 23, 2025, on suspicion of offering money and gifts to the wife and aides of former President Yoon Suk-yeol in exchange for favors for the church.

Newstapa conducted an undercover investigation into the Unification Church for one month, starting the day before Han’s arrest.

That day, as the court reviewed Han’s arrest warrant, believers at Unification Church sacred site Cheon Shim Won wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Holy Mother Han” and prayed while weeping and wailing.

That day, Cheon Shim Won Director Lee Ki-seong conveyed a message from the “spiritual realm” to the gathered believers, stating that their leader would soon be released.

First, Lee relayed what he said was a message from Unification Church founder Moon Sun-myung, who had passed away in 2012.

According to Lee, Moon sent a message that “The warrant review will be rejected, but what happens afterward is what matters.” This was followed by a message from the spiritual realm that Lee attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who reportedly promised to “strongly protect True Mother [Han].”

However, Han was arrested and detained in Seoul.

The Unification Church held approximately 40 group prayer meetings before and after Han’s arrest. Each session lasted from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., with at least 1,000 believers attending every time.

During the week Han was detained, more than 2,700 people crammed into the sanctuary. Han’s family and relatives, among them senior church officials, sat at the front, with believers packed tightly behind them. Young children who had come with their parents slept on the floor in the front row.

Footage of leader Han and her husband, Moon Seong-myeong, was projected behind the stage, where Han’s golden chair had been placed. Church officials laid flowers on the chair and paid their respects.

One official read aloud a poem he had written as an expression of sympathy for Han, who was being held at a detention center in Seoul.

The subject of the poem was Han’s meals there. Here is the gist of it.

“Mother’s breakfast was a cheese bun… Her lunch was soup with deep-fried tofu, braised pork, pickled chili peppers, and kimchi. I wonder if she enjoyed it — did she eat even half of it?”

At a group prayer meeting, church leaders called on the congregation to unify.

“Those who seek to tear us apart want division. Our family must stand united. The day of our comeback and the day of our victory will surely come,” they said.

Han’s grandson, who is said to be her successor, also spoke.

“Look at the life of Mother, who stood proudly before the people despite all the suspicions and falsehoods spread by the media and the special prosecutor,” he said.

Credibility of TM Report backed in court

The TM Report is a Unification Church internal document. It is said to have been prepared by Yun Young-ho, the church’s second in command and head of its World Headquarters, to report directly to Han on church matters.

Yun’s trial has included testimony regarding the purpose of the TM Report and evidence supporting its credibility.

“I did not forward this document itself to leader Han, but I gave her a verbal report every morning based on its content,” Yun testified during the trial. “Following my report, Han issued specific instructions.”

A church member who worked on interpretation and translation as well as hosting foreign dignitaries testified, “When reports from overseas were conveyed to Yun, he reported them to Han.”

“Upon receiving instructions from Han via Yun, I translated them and conveyed them to our members in various countries overseas,” they added.

The Unification Church’s District 5 Director, who appeared as a witness, admitted to drafting text that appeared in the TM Report.

Getting close to the president

The Unification Church was attempting to expand its influence in South Korea by currying favor with politicians.

A TM Report believed to have been compiled after the 2022 South Korean presidential election contained the phrase “Y visit.” “Y” refers to Yoon Suk-yeol.

The report included a memo recording Yun Young-ho’s visit to the transition committee office shortly after former President Yoon’s election.

It included phrases such as, “let’s entrust Yun Young-ho with specific tasks,” “a proposal for a national project,” “let’s discuss this further,” “let’s implement during this term in office.”

It appears that the Unification Church proposed some kind of nation-wide project, which President Yoon gave serious consideration.

There are also reports that members of the South Korean National Assembly supported projects promoted by the church.

One was former Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lim Jong-seong.

The TM Report indicates that Lim cooperated with the church during the process of changing the name of the “World Peace Tunnel Foundation” — established by the church to promote an undersea tunnel between Japan and South Korea — to the “World Peace Road Foundation” in November 2017.

An October 2019 TM Report also noted that Lim helped support a water resource development project in Kyrgyzstan promoted by the church.

Lim is currently under investigation on suspicion of receiving approximately 30 million Korean won from the Unification Church around the time of the 2020 general election.

The former lawmaker has denied accepting money, valuables, or political funds from the church. As for the TM Report, he maintains that its content was exaggerated to demonstrate loyalty within the church and has no connection to his actual conduct.

The TM Report also reveals that the Unification Church attempted to interfere not only in national but also local elections in South Korea.

A TM Report dated November 2, 2020, included a plan to court candidates ahead of the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election. It involved utilizing the church’s “Seoul City Community Project” to have up to 300 Unification Church members join neighborhood committees.

“World Headquarters will coordinate the ‘air war,’ while we [believers] will take responsibility for building up the ‘ground war,’” the report reads. “We are confident that this will be an unbeatable trump card for candidates in next year’s Seoul mayoral by-election.”

As in Japan, Unification Church’s South Korean headquarters has also denied the TM Report’s credibility.

“The report is nothing more than an unofficial document drafted by Yun to demonstrate his influence. It reflects his personal views to an excessive degree, contains information that does not align with the facts, and sections unfavorable to Yun himself have been deleted,” the church maintains.

However, when considering the testimonies of other Unification Church members in court, the church’s 60-year-long infiltration of Japanese politics, and reporting on politicians and Unification Church members in both Japan and South Korea, the TM Report appears highly credible. Newstapa and Tansa will continue their joint investigation into it.

(Korean–Japanese translation: Kang Min-ju)

Reporting on the “TM Report”

Regarding the TM Report, the Unification Church has refuted it, while the LDP has turned a blind eye.

On January 16, 2026, the Unification Church’s Public Relations Department of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification published “Our Organization’s View on the ‘TM Special Report’.”

Within their announcement, there is a report by a staff member who is said to have worked under Yun Young-ho, a former World Headquarters director who compiled the TM Report. It points out that the report is highly likely to contain deliberate omissions, alterations, and additions, concluding that it is “extremely lacking in credibility.” The report’s author remains anonymous, and no details regarding their position or role are disclosed.

It also states that, regarding the relationships with Japanese politicians described in the TM Report, “it cannot be ruled out that the expressions within the report go beyond the established facts, that the context has been embellished, or that the report includes content that cannot be verified as factual.”

From the Unification Church side, on January 8, 2026, former Chairman Eiji Tokuno also posted a statement on X. He acknowledged that “it is true that it includes a report I sent to the former World Headquarters Director to report to leader Han” while adding that “it also contains many personal opinions and wishful predictions.”

In September 2022, two months after the assassination of former LDP President Shinzo Abe, the LDP conducted an investigation into its ties with the Unification Church and concluded that “the party has no organisational relationship with the Church.” The investigation was severely inadequate, relying solely on self-reporting by lawmakers. Despite this, current party president Sanae Takaichi has shown absolutely no intention of evaluating the TM Report. On January 26, 2026, she appeared on TBS’s news23. When Akiko Oishi, co-chair of the Reiwa Shinsengumi, pointed out that Takaichi’s name appears in the TM Report, Takaichi called it a “document of unknown origin” and went so far as to say “that would amount to defamation”.

Tansa reviewed the entire 3,212-page Korean version of the TM Report.Making use of AI-based analysis, examining the document together with translators and our reporting partner, the Korean investigative journalism organization Newstapa.

Extensive research has been conducted on the Unification Church and a vast body of investigative findings has been accumulated by journalists and researchers, as well as by lawyers and religious scholars who have worked on victim support and countermeasures. Tansa respects the work of its predecessors and has utilised their findings to examine the TM Report.

As a result, we have determined that the TM Report is a crucial document in unraveling the longstanding codependency between the Unification Church and the LDP.

While continuing to report on the TM Report, we will pursue further investigation. If you have internal information regarding undisclosed ties between the Unification Church and the Liberal Democratic Party, we encourage you to contact Tansa. We will responsibly protect and keep confidential the identity of our sources.

For those wishing to provide information, please refer to the page. It contains details on contact methods, points to note, and key aspects of the Whistleblower Protection Act.

The Unification Church changed its name to the “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification” in 2015, and the media refers to it as the “Former Unification Church.” However, because there is continuity in the fundamental problems inherent to the Church, Tansa will refer to it as the “Unification Church.”

 

January 27, 2026

Tokyo Investigative Newsroom Tansa

 

(Originally published in Japanese on February 4, 2026. )

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