October 2022 Issue
English Version of the “Article 9 Association(A9A)” Bulletin and News
This is the translated version of the Japanese edition of the Bulletin and News published in September
2022. It is published by Katsuyuki Nara of the New English Teachers Association (or Shin-Eiken,

http://www.shin-eiken.com/) and Sarah Brock. The translation is on our own．
Uploaded on November 16th,2022

English version No. 263

Speak Out and Take Action Against
Massive Military Buildup Violating Article 9!
The Kishida Administration has fallen on hardoffensive weapons, widely deviating from thetimes as its cozy relationship with the Unification

conventional

Church is exposed repeatedly. But Kishida has no

advocates exclusive defense, and clearly violating

intention of giving up his agenda of military

Article 9 of the Constitution. It is more importantbuildup and constitutional revision.

than ever to keep up and accelerate grassroots

government

interpretation

thataction against arms expansion.(Translated byTheadministration

isplanning

todeploy

Katsuyuki Nara)

Provincial A9A Group Activities
Unification Church Plot to Alter Japan’s Constitution
Saitama A9AGroup(October 21, 2022, Friday) Saitama A9A sponsoredabout the Unification Church based on his 40-year

a lecture session at Urawa Community Center inresearch. They were astounded at what theOmiya City entitled “the Unification Church and its

Unification Church is actually doing not only at theplot to change the Japanese Constitution,” featuring

national level, affecting the Japanese Parliament,

Yoshifu Arita. Yoshifu Arita is a freelance journalist

but also in local communities around Japan.

and former member of the Upper House of theJapanese

Parliament

fortheConstitutional

Democratic Party of Japan. He was asked to givethe lecture in response to the Saitama A9A’s deep
concerned about this issue. The Saitama A9A sells
copiesofUnification

theRikken

Church,andForumbookletThe

theSaitama

A9A

newsletter For Peace delivers regular reports on thecult’s activities.
104 attendees were chilled by Arita’s revelations

Arita started his lecture with the assassination offormer Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Tatsuya
Yamagami, the suspect in the shooting, claimed thathe thought the former prime minister was affiliatedwith the Unification Church, and that was one ofthe points that prompted him to attack. Yamagami’s
mother is a member of the church. This led the talkinto what the Unification Church is about and who
founder Sun Myung Moon is, including his criminal
record.

The journalist revealed the many different ways

official policy agreement between the cult andMoonies make money, including the so-called

politicians. He said that the nomination forms

spiritual sales* one of which he has witnessed

include five items describing the group’s politicalpersonally. Arita spoke of gun sales (which in Japan

objectives, and that one was about the revision ofare strictly regulated) by Kokusai Shokyo Rengo,the Japanese Constitution and the reinforcement of

the International Federation for Victory overthe national security system.

Communism, a Unification Church associatedorganization. This group has a military wing and issuspected of involvement in several cold cases,
including the gun attack on the Hanshin Bureau of
the Asahi Shimbun in Hyogo Prefecture in 1983.
Arita concluded with informing the audience ofUnification Church political lobbying at nationaland local legislatures. He referred to a newspaper
article reporting how the Unification Church asked
Liberal Democratic Party legislators to sign off on
nomination forms for the nearest election. Such asigning off on nomination forms is equivalent to anArita

pointedout

anothersuspect

political

objective: the Unification Church aims to enact“family education” bylaws at the local assembly. Infact, this type of local activity has regretfully
succeeded in at least one case: a bylaw to support
family education has been enacted in the city ofShiki even within Saitama Prefecture. The memberof the Saitama A9A who provided this information
added that it was frightening to think that thepolitical invasion has been carried out by a groupwhose ultimate ambition is to establish a nation
where church and state is unified. (Translated byToshikazu Izumi)

Tsu A9A group in Mie Prefecture
18 years have passed since creation of our group.

Science Council of Japan and the defense buildup

The group is faced with aging of group members,plan. In December, we plan to hold a lecture

but we are determined to do whatever possible inmeeting with constitution scholar Hirokazu

order to pass the torch to younger generations.

Miyake as guest speaker. He plans to speak about‘What will Article 9 revision bring about in ourcountry?’

We distribute flyers door to door, asking forsignatures against constitutional amendment.
Therearepositivereactionsfromsome

households, although the number is small.
Studying activities are also an important pillar of
our activities. In the past, we have held public
lectures on the refusal of appointments to the11Kasuga A9A Group, Fukuoka Prefecture
Our group was founded on January 13, 2008, andmeetings once a month, and extraordinary

over the years we have maintained an average

meetings when some important issue comes up

membership of about 300. Among the 19

relatedfounding board members, 12 are active today. We

customarily we have a movie screening. At thecollect no membership fees; instead, our group isgeneral meeting and movie-screening events, wefunded by participation fees and donations at

hand out signature sheets with return envelopes.

various events. We have been actively involved in

We also publish a bulletin four times a year withother organizations and related events.

information on our events and the results oftotheConstitution.

InAugust,rallies and campaigns.
We hold general meetings every year in February
although we had to cancel it in 2021 because of

We do a street campaign on the 19th of each

COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. That means wemonth, and distribute flyers, and appeal toheld our 15th general meeting in 2022. In thepassersby with a megaphone and ask forgeneral meeting we start by reviewing activities ofsignatures on petitions.

the previous year. The rest of the time is devoted
to a lecture on constitutional issues.

(Reported by Kazuko Haruguchi, Secretariat)(Translated by Sadao Hiroyama)
Besides the general meeting, we hold regular[Note]*Spiritual sales, or Reikan Shoho: Followers pressure people to buy vases or other items for

exorbitant prices and sometimes threatens people by telling that their not agreeing to do so would bringbad fortune upon them and their families. This has long been causing problems in society.