盛山文科相、教団の選挙支援「依頼せず」　岸田首相、閣僚に関係断絶再確認へ

　盛山正仁文部科学相は６日の衆院予算委員会で、世界平和統一家庭連合（旧統一教会）の関連団体から２０２１年衆院選の支援を受けていたとの一部報道について「過去の衆院選で当該団体に支援を依頼した事実はない」と否定した。立憲民主党の長妻昭政調会長への答弁。
　これに関し、岸田文雄首相は旧統一教会との関係を断つなどとした自民党の方針を「閣僚に対していま一度確認する」と述べた。
　立民の山岸一生氏は、盛山氏の更迭を求めた。首相は「引き続き職責を果たしてもらいたい」と拒否。盛山氏も「職務をしっかり果たしていく」と強調した。（2024/02/06-10:49）

Japanese education minister Masahito Moriyama on Tuesday denied seeking election support from an organization linked to the controversial religious group Unification Church.
   "I haven't asked the (Unification Church-related) organization for support in any past House of Representatives elections," he told a meeting of the Budget Committee of the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament.
   Moriyama, a Lower House member of the Liberal Democratic Party, was responding to Akira Nagatsuma, policy head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, who grilled the minister over a media report that he received support from the organization in question in the 2021 Lower House election.
   At the committee meeting, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also president of the ruling LDP, said that he will check with cabinet ministers once again about the party's policy of severing relations with the Unification Church, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
   "I want (Moriyama) to continue to fulfill his duties," Kishida said, rejecting a call from CDP member Issei Yamagishi for dismissing the education minister.