「霊感商法」検討会設置へ　消費者庁に指示―河野担当相

　河野太郎消費者担当相は１２日の記者会見で、世界平和統一家庭連合（旧統一教会）をめぐり社会問題化した「霊感商法」に関する検討会を立ち上げるよう、消費者庁に指示したことを明らかにした。
　河野氏は「なるべく速やかに始めたい。問題が起きないよう、どういう対応をしたらいいか検討してもらおうと思っている」と述べた。（2022/08/12-13:10）

Japanese Consumer affairs minister Taro Kono said Friday he has instructed the Consumer Affairs Agency to set up a study panel on "spiritual sales," a practice known for being used by the Unification Church.
   "I want to have the panel launched as promptly as possible," Kono, who assumed the ministerial post only on Wednesday, told a press conference. "My plan is to ask (the panel) to discuss how to deal with (spiritual sales) so that problems don't emerge."
   The Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, came under renewed public scrutiny after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot to death last month by a suspect whose mother is a follower of the controversial religious group.
   The use of spiritual sales, in which goods such as vases and seals with high price tags are sold based on a claim that such goods can cut the buyers free from the "misfortunes of ancestors," has been a social problem in Japan since the 1980s.