The Abe Assassination and Japan’s Nexus of Religion and Politics

2023/08/22 by Levi McLaughlin
Social Sciences · #Japanese History and Culture

paper · doi:10.1525/curh.2023.122.845.209

openalex publication_date 2023/08/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

The shocking murder of Japan’s former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe by a gunman motivated by anger at the politician’s ties to the controversial Unification Church sparked a massive outcry that amplified long-standing anxieties about religion in Japan. This article surveys reasons for persistent tensions between a Japanese public that tends to reject self-identifying as religious and the influence of religion-affiliated organizations on Japanese politics. It also identifies Abe’s assassination in July 2022 and local-level elections in April 2023 as potential beginning and end points of the latest moral panic about religion in Japan’s public sphere.

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