Overview
- The church said it paid about ¥820 million in individual settlements from February through September.
- Since July 2022, individual case payouts total roughly ¥6.94 billion across 965 cases, according to the reform chief.
- Separately, it agreed to pay about ¥1.339 billion through collective mediation, pushing disclosed assistance to former members above ¥8.2 billion.
- Hideyuki Teshigawara acknowledged the group cannot deny moral responsibility for high‑amount donations and indicated a future apology is likely.
- The church set up a five‑member compensation committee of outside lawyers to review refund claims, accepting applications from October 31 to March and stating it will not reject likely claims on statute‑of‑limitations grounds, while victim advocates question the panel’s independence and note the group’s effort to avoid a court‑ordered dissolution.