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I was watching an old [_Saturday Night
Live_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live) sketch from the
1970s, called _Night of the Moonies_ , making fun of the [Unification
Church](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church) by putting them in
the context of the movie [_Night of the Living
Dead_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_living_dead).

The [video I was watching](http://nicoviewer.net/sm13142252) happened to have
Japanese subtitles. I noticed that in the subtitles, when they referred to the
Unification Church, which is called `統一{とういつ}教会{きょうかい}` in Japanese, they
replaced `一` with `◯`, so it looks like `統◯教会`.

My understanding of the use of `◯` is that it is the equivalent of when in
English words are blacked out, to censor them so as not to offend. But I'm a
little baffled by this instance of censorship, or even if that's what it is.

![night_of_the_moonies_-
_japanese_subtitles](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yf7LT.png)

> [統〇]{とういつ}協会{きょうかい}が私{あたし}の家族{かぞく}
>
> 親{おや}は嫌{きら}い
>
> "The Unification Church is my family. I don't like my parents."

Why censor the name of the church? Why block out only one of the kanji?
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usage kanji
Why censor this one kanji?
You are right that ◯ is used here to mask a letter.

There are several related but different reasons as to why one would do this.
The comment section already refers to one such use, where certain words are
deemed inappropriate (especially on broadcasting), the equivalent of f*ck. But
I don't think that explains this one.

In this case, I think the intention is to poke fun at 統一教会 in several ways.

First, by disgracing their name, by implying that it needs masking, as in the
same league of f*ck and such. It also implies that the content refers to them
in a negative way, which would actually make it more attractive to certain
audience (who despise them.)

And finally, because the masking in this case doesn't really mask anything,
for those who do not see 統一教会 nagatively, this sends a signal that they
should.

(Perhaps you aren't aware of the controversies surrounding 統一教会, and if so,
reading upon it a bit might make it easier to understand this.)
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I think they are just trying to not offend a particular denomination, though
it's pretty obvious which one they are talking about.
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It's to ward off potential legal issues. The idea is that if you use a brand
name or real name of an organization they could claim a trademark or that the
sketch was about them or whatever. Changing one letter is a kind of fig leaf.

It can also be done as a kind of joke, where the author is acknowledging that
what they are saying is somewhat questionable or might anger the owner of the
mark.
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