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The government will question the Unification Church about an adoption system the religious group is believed to be operating under its doctrine, welfare minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday.

The central and Tokyo Metropolitan governments will together submit written inquiries to the group about the system, Kato told a news conference.

“We’ll work to properly figure out what the organization has been doing since the adoption agency law came into force in fiscal 2018,” he said.

The law allows only entities including social welfare corporations to serve as adoption agencies and stipulates that approval from prefectural governments is necessary to operate as such an agency.

Arranging adoptions without approval repeatedly and continuously could be a violation of the law, regardless of whether payments are made.

“If specific cases are confirmed (at the Unification Church), we’ll take necessary measures regarding administrative guidance or penalties under the law,” Kato said.

The religious group has said a total of 745 children were adopted within the group since 1981, but claimed they were decided between the group’s members and the organization has not served as an agency.