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Masaki Kito (紀藤 正樹, Kitō Masaki, b. November 21, 1960) is a Japanese attorney at law who specializes in consumer affairs, investment frauds and cases involving religious cults, especially Aleph (formerly known as Aum Shinrikyo) and the Unification Church. He regularly appears as a commentator on Japanese TV news and current affairs programs.

Career

Kito was born November 21, 1960, in Ube, Yamaguchi, and is a graduate of Osaka University and Graduate School of Law and Politics of Osaka University. Kito is a head lawyer of Link Law Office Kito and Partners in Tokyo, established in 2001.

He is a member of the Consumer Affairs Committee in Japan Federation of Bar Associations.

He is the acting executive director of the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales aims at providing legal assistance for victims of cult-related frauds.

On 26 August 2022, he became one of the members being elected to the "Spiritual Sales Review Committee" in the Consumer Affairs Agency for providing suggestions to regulate the Unification Church's predatory fundraising. The committee was established under the order of Digital Minister Taro Kono as the approval rating of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet continued to plunge due to intense media scrutiny of the ties between his party with the church since the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

Predecessor

Before Kito, victims of Unification Church and Aum Shinrikyo were represented by Tsutsumi Sakamoto, who was murdered, together with his family, by several members of Aum Shinrikyo.

Major publications

• Mind Control (Risk in our lives) (2012, ASCOM)
• Online shopping you do not want to fail (失敗しないネットショッピング) (Iwanami Shinsho Active) (2002)
• Religious Corporation Act for the 21st Century (Asahi News Shop) (1995)

See also

• Anti-cult movement
• Yoshihiro Yasuda

References

1. ^ Usui, Shingo (13 December 2013). ネットダフ屋 「より欲しい人に行き渡る」「普通の人は買えなくなる」…山崎元、紀藤正樹両氏が激論 [Net ticket resellers - Heated argument between Moto Yamazaki and Masaki Kito]. MSN Sankei News (in Japanese). Japan: The Sankei Shimbun & Sankei Digital. pp. 1–4. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
2. "Some Japanese suspected of hiding crime gains in tax havens". 20:16 6 April 2016 Kyodo
3. White, Steve (15 June 2012). ""The last piece of the puzzle": Final member of doomsday cult arrested after 17 years on the run". Mirror News. UK: MGN Ltd. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
4. "Tokyo subway nerve gas fugitive caught". CBC News. The Associated Press. 15 June 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
5. Matsubara, Hiroshi (11 August 2000). "Aum rulings set line between life and death". The Japan Times. Japan: The Japan Times Ltd. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
6. "Unification Church agrees to pay woman 230 million yen :The Asahi Shimbun, Japan Apr. 9, 2008". 9 April 2008.
7. 「紀藤正樹」の出演番組 [Masaki Kito TV appearances]. Goo TV (in Japanese). Japan: NTT Resonant Inc. 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
8. Link Law Office website Archived 2014-01-01 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2013-01-09 (in Japanese)
9. "Activities of the Consumer Affairs Committee in JFBA". Archived from the original on 2013-06-13. Retrieved 2013-11-27.
10. "消費者庁の霊感商法検討会、委員に紀藤弁護士や菅野志桜里氏", The Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese), 2022-08-26, retrieved 2022-08-27
11. Why a church has become a headache for Japan's prime minister, Reuters, 2022-08-16, retrieved 2022-08-27 – via YouTube
12. Mind Control (Risk in our lives) (2012, ASCOM) - Info-Cult in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)
• International Cultic Studies Association profile Archived 2014-03-05 at the Wayback Machine

• Aum Shinrikyo
• Critics of new religious movements
• Psychological abuse
• Osaka University
• 20th-century Japanese lawyers
• 1960 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Japanese lawyers