A Year after Relocation, Culture Agency Operating "Largely Smoothly"

   Kyoto, March 27 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Cultural Affairs Agency is operating "largely smoothly" a year after the relocation of its main functions from Tokyo to the city of Kyoto in western Japan, a senior official of the agency has said.
   Online communications between workers of the agency in Kyoto and personnel including its staff and lawmakers in Tokyo, where most central government offices are and the rest of the agency's functions remain, have become commonplace.
   Some Cultural Affairs Agency employees, however, say they are not sure yet whether the relocation, which took place on March 27, 2023, has been successful, given that it has been busy the past year dealing with issues related to the controversial religious group Unification Church. Others cite personnel issues.
   The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, to which the agency is affiliated, asked a court last October to issue an order to dissolve the religious group, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, arguing that the organization violated the Civil Code as it demanded large amounts of donations from followers by fanning anxieties.
   The relocation of the agency was decided in 2016 by the government of then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a pillar of its initiative to correct the concentration of government functions in Tokyo and was the first major move under the project.

(2024/03/27-11:00)

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