Despite ’25 Election Loss: Vows to Keep Fighting

Unyielding in spite of loss in Upper House election, party founder wants to keep standing for faith and family and push vision for Japan’s future

Tokyo, 21st July 2025 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article. 

“I Did Everything I Could”

Family Federation Believer Hiroshi Ogasawara Ran in Chiba Constituency for Upper House Election

by the editorial department of Sekai Nippo

See also In Election Bid Citing Faith, Family, and Freedom

See also Large Daily on Family Federation and Politics

See also Decline of Family Values Creates Social Crisis

Hiroshi Ogasawara (小笠原裕 – 62), a certified small and medium enterprise management consultant and an active member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church), ran in the Chiba constituency for the House of Councillors election under the political group “Association to Protect Japanese Families”. In the late evening of 20th July, he announced via internet broadcast that he had no chance of winning. However, he expressed his commitment, saying,

“As an organization, we will continue political activities and work to change Japan.”

During the campaign period, Ogasawara gave more than 80 street speeches. Reflecting on the effort, he said,

“I did everything I could.”

In his speeches, he openly disclosed his affiliation with the Family Federation and criticized both the Ministry of Education’s request for the religious organization‘s dissolution and the practice of coercive faith-breaking [See editor’s note below] through abduction and confinement.

Together with his wife, Kaoru (薫 – 61), he traveled around the prefecture emphasizing the importance of protecting religious freedom and the family. On 8^th July, the anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (安倍晋三), he held a memorial speech and moment of silence in public.

His campaign posters were sometimes defaced with slurs such as “Korean” and “idiot,” but he also recalled being approached by non-believing young people who expressed interest in his message. Ogasawara noted,

“What young people expect is not short-term policies, but a vision of what Japan should be 20 or 30 years from now. Japan must move forward with policies that consider future generations.”

He added,

“Our religious organization’s unique values and principles have the potential to improve Japan, but we need to find better ways to communicate them clearly to voters. I want to think about what we can do for Japan and its people and strive toward the ‘beautiful Japan’ that Abe envisioned.”

See also In Election Bid Citing Faith, Family, and Freedom

See also Large Daily on Family Federation and Politics

See also Decline of Family Values Creates Social Crisis

Featured image above: Hiroshi Ogasawara (小笠原裕) reporting the election results to his supporters late at night on 20^th July in Chiba City. Photo: Takahide Ishii (石井孝秀)

[Editor’s note: Coercive faith-breaking (“deprogramming”, forced renunciation of faith) in Japan refers to the practice of coercively attempting to separate individuals from their religious affiliations or beliefs, typically through intervention by family members, professional faith-breakers (deprogrammers) or organizations hostile to new religious movements (NRMs). This phenomenon often targets members of such movements, e.g. relatively large faiths like the Family Federation or Jehovah’s Witnesses, but also smaller groups like Happy Science (Kōfuku no Kagaku) and other newer religious movements.

However, also Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist-based lay organization with more than 8 million Japanese members, and affiliated with Nichiren Buddhism, has occasionally been subject to faith-breaking attempts.

The practice gained attention in the latter half of the 20th century, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. Parents or concerned family members often hired faith-breakers who taught them how to abduct and forcibly detain believers. Almost all such cases involved confining the individual believer and cutting him or her off from the religious community. During the confinement, the believer was subjected to intense questioning or indoctrination designed to break his or her faith. The aim was to “rescue” the person from what the family often had been tricked by faith-breakers or lawyers to regard as harmful influence from the religious organization.

Critics of forced de-conversion argue that it violates fundamental human rights, including freedom of thought, religion, and association. Reports of psychological trauma and accusations of unlawful detention have sparked debates over its ethical and legal implications. In response, some religious groups, particularly NRMs, have lobbied for greater protections against such practices.

Japanese courts have been inconsistent in addressing cases of coercive faith-breaking. While some verdicts have condemned the practice as illegal detention, others have been more lenient, citing family concerns about “mental health” or alleged “exploitation” as mitigating factors.]

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