Investigation will focus on church’s finance and organisation amid public dismay at extent of its links to ruling party

Japan’s government has launched an investigation into the Unification church, five months after the former prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead, allegedly by a man with a longstanding grudge against the group.

The probe, announced on Tuesday, will focus on the church’s finances and organisation, and could see it stripped of its legal status, media reports said.