Report to UNHRC: How Japan has allowed illegal faith-breaking for decades and now uses cases in campaign to dissolve minority religion
Logo of the Sekai NippoTokyo, 27th September 2024 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article
“Dissolution order is ‘destruction of faith’; Japanese government ‘silently permits’ faith-breaking,” says a Family Federation-affiliated NGO at the UN Human Rights Council
by the editorial department of Sekai Nippo
Norishige Kondo, here speaking in Tokyo 10th Sep. 2023. Photo: Screenshot from live transmission by Japanese Victims’ Association against Religious Kidnapping and Forced ConversionAt a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 25th September 2024, Norishige Kondo (近藤徳茂), director of the legal affairs department of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in Japan, a UN NGO affiliated with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church), claimed that the Japanese government has “turned a blind eye” to the forcible faith-breaking of Family Federation members by locking them up. Kondo called for an “end to discrimination and persecution”.
Forcibly detained for 12 years, but not allowed by authorities to press criminal charges: Toru Goto (後藤徹), here in 2008 barely able to move after being held in forcible detention by faith-breakers for more than 12 years. Photo: Japanese Victims’ Association against Religious Kidnapping and Forced ConversionKondo mentioned the case of Toru Goto (後藤徹), a Family Federation member who was abducted, confined, and pressured to renounce his faith. Norishige Kondo pointed out that in 2013, the court ruled that “faith-breaking – physical and psychological violence to coerce someone to abandon his or her faith – is illegal.” Furthermore, he criticized the Japanese government’s response, saying that despite “repeated international recommendations to Japan by UN human rights bodies and experts”, the government has “used legal battles filed by lawyers representing former members who had left the church and become apostates, to “eliminate the Unification Church from Japan”.
In October last year, the Japanese government submitted a request for the dissolution of the Family Federation to the Tokyo District Court, and the hearing is ongoing. Kondo claimed that the Family Federation faces threats such as dissolution as a worship society, violations of its rights defined by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, confiscation of all assets, and the introduction of a state-led new form of “faith destruction”. He called for an end to all discrimination and persecution.
Patricia Duval, French attorney and expert on international human rights law. She has defended the rights of minorities of religion or belief in domestic and international fora, and before international institutions such as the European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the European Union, and the United Nations. She has also published numerous scholarly articles on freedom of religion or belief. Photo: FOREFAdditionally, French human rights lawyer Patricia Duval submitted a report titled “Japan: A Witch Hunt to Eradicate the Unification Church” to a UN agency on the same day, criticizing the Japanese government’s actions which led to the request for a court order to dissolve the Family Federation.
According to the report, the government and the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales labeled “the activity of soliciting donations aimed at spreading the faith and maintaining the worship society organization” as “harmful to public welfare” and “antisocial”. The government and those lawyers have begun the process of dissolving the Family Federation.
The report also expressed concern that the government’s “theory of undue influence” has stripped believers of their “legal capacity”, creating a “tragic situation” for both ordinary believers and second-generation members.
Duval pointed out that such government actions resembled those of a “totalitarian state” and warned that unless measures were taken to stop these discriminatory and repressive actions by the Japanese authorities, believers would be “forced to abandon their faith”.
According to the Family Federation, forced de-conversions of believers have been carried out by Christian pastors and lawyers for decades with more than 4,300 victims. Additionally, after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (安倍晋三) two years ago, critical media reports about the Family Federation have increased, leading to continued discrimination and persecution of believers.
Featured image above: On 25th September 2024, Norishige Kondo (近藤徳茂), director of UPF legal affairs department in Japan, reporting at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: Screenshot from transmission on UN website.
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