Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has shifted his position on an aspect of the Unification Church issue in a bid to deflect criticism that the government has not done enough to clear up the matter. However, following a rapid succession of shifts, Kishida's approach could be doing him more harm than good.
When Kishida said Wednesday that illegal acts under the Civil Code could be the basis for a court order to dissolve a religious corporation, he was departing from the conventional interpretation of the Religious Corporations Law, which focuses on the Penal Code. It was a sharp turn from comments he had made in the Diet the previous day.
