TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese court has approved the provisional seizure of the Unification Church headquarters' land in Tokyo as sought by alleged victims of the church's aggressive donation solicitation practices, a lawyers' group said Wednesday.

The 10 people, who are negotiating damages payment by the Unification Church in a separate procedure, filed for the land seizure in June, fearing the church could hide its assets to evade payouts, the lawyers' group said.

The Unification Church criticized the move as "completely unnecessary and wasteful," stating it has "absolutely no plans to dispose of" the land.

In the decision dated July 18, the Tokyo District Court green-lighted the seizure under a new law enacted in December 2023 to strengthen monitoring of religious corporation assets that could be subject to legal claims.

The law was crafted amid concerns that the Unification Church, which may lose religious corporation status and related tax benefits, might attempt to move its assets overseas to avoid compensation claims. The ruling marks the first provisional seizure under the new law.

The Unification Church was designated as a religious corporation covered by the law in March 2024.

With the seizure, the church can continue its activities at the headquarters' building but is barred from selling or donating the land.

While an application for provisional seizure requires collateral, the Japan Legal Support Center, a public organization, supplied the financial backing under the law, the group said.

The law strengthens surveillance of a group under the threat of losing its religious corporation status, such as by requiring it to give central or prefectural government authorities at least one month's notice before disposing of assets.

If a notification is not given, the organization is prohibited from proceeding with any further liquidation.

The Tokyo District Court in March ordered that the Unification Church be stripped of its religious corporation status, as sought by the Japanese government. But the legal proceedings continue, as the religious group has appealed to a high court.

Such a dissolution order, if finalized, would deprive the group, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, of tax benefits as a religious corporation, although it would still be able to continue its activities in Japan.

Following the finalization of the order, a liquidator will dispose of the Unification Church's assets, enabling victims who are recognized as creditors to receive compensation.

Its practices came to the public eye after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022 by a man claiming to hold a grudge against the organization because of financially ruinous donations taken from his mother.

Tetsuya Yamagami, who has been indicted over the shooting, told investigators that he targeted Abe due to the role of the politician's grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, in helping establish the Unification Church in Japan in the 1960s.

It was founded in South Korea by a staunch anti-communist in 1954.