Unification Church Funds Used For Japan-Korea Tunnel

An organization affiliated with the Unification Church acquired vast expanses of land in southwest Japan's Kyushu region for a project to create an undersea tunnel connecting Japan and South Korea, Masanori Hirakawa and Hibiki Yamaguchi reported for Mainichi Shimbun.

Photo Insert: It is possible that donations the church collected from its followers were used to fund the Japan-Korea tunnel.

The land spans 460,000 square meters, the equivalent of about 10 Tokyo Dome stadiums. The affiliated body has also admitted that its predecessor accepted a donation of 10 billion yen, or roughly $75.5 million, from the church, now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

It is possible that donations the church collected from its followers were used to fund the Japan-Korea tunnel. With the tunnel, the Saga Prefecture city of Karatsu would be connected with South Korea via the Nagasaki Prefecture islands of Iki and Tsushima.

The late Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon proposed the project in 1981.

The land was acquired by the International Highway Foundation (IHF), a Tokyo-based foundation.

Between November and December last year, the Mainichi Shimbun examined the registries of each piece of land based on the IHF's material and other sources.

At least 165,000 square meters of land were owned by the foundation in Karatsu, some 280,000 square meters in Tsushima, and about 17,000 square meters in Iki. A probe found that about 440,000 square meters, or 95% of the total, was donated to the Unification Church between 2010 and 2011.

After Moon proposed the project, an IHF contractor and other bodies bought forests and fields in many areas using church funds. The land was later transferred to the church and eventually donated to the IHF.

An underground passage for geological surveys has already been excavated in Karatsu, and surveys and construction in preparation for the undersea tunnel project have commenced. Hiroshi Hirata, a lawyer belonging to the Fukuoka Bar Association, pointed out that "while various groups have been involved in the Japan-Korea tunnel project, this shows the reality that the Unification Church took the lead."

He said donations from church followers were recognized as illegal and investigations should verify how the large funds and contributions collected by the church were used.

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