Press release from Family Federation of the United Kingdom on the serious mistake of Kishida administration’s dissolution request
FFWPU UK, 43 Lancaster Gate, London W2 3NA
London, October 12, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Japan is making a serious mistake in seeking the dissolution of the Family Federation
Today the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology (MEXT) stated it will apply to the Tokyo District Court for a “dissolution order” against the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification of Japan (FFWPU-J)
We, the Family Federation of the UK are deeply disappointed that the government of Japan has taken this rash and ill-considered action. Many religious and human rights experts from throughout the world have written to the Japanese government in recent weeks urging them not to take this step, which is blatant disregard of international laws and conventions on human rights and religious freedoms and may be found unconstitutional even in Japan.
We fully expect that FFWPU-J will be vindicated in the courts. Over the years, the courts in Europe have again and again upheld our religious and human rights, and in a similar case in the UK, the then Attorney General was forced to admit there was “no case to answer” and had to reimburse FFWPU millions of pounds in legal fees and costs.
However, this process will surely prolong the unfair and unconstitutional persecution of our membership in Japan, who have already endured discrimination in employment and education and in access to basic governmental services and resources simply because of their faith.
For further information contact: Josh Mc Guigan, FFWPU UK Press Officer
Commentary by Dr. Michael Balcomb, Director, FFWPU UK
This call for a dissolution order is a sad reflection on the current state of Japanese parliamentary leadership. Japan faces many major external challenges: the threat of a confident and increasingly belligerent People’s Republic of China; sour relations with South Korea, which should be its closest ally; the nuclear ambitions of Kim Jong Un whose missiles can reach Japan. At home, the economy is lagging, the population ageing and the birth and marriage rate are in serious decline.
The country as a whole remains closed-minded and suspicious toward the immigrant communities, including those of the Family Federation, whose traditional values and stable and relatively large families are the best chance Japan has of turning the demographic tide, preferring instead to call mixed-race children by the pejorative “hafu” (half).
When a society unashamedly considers some of its citizens to be only “half,” whether because of race, ethnicity, religion or politics, it is already on the dangerous slope to tyranny and oppression. Democracy in Japan is relatively young, and the Kishida government, by willfully ignoring advice from religious and legal experts, parliamentary leaders and others around the world not to proceed with this ill-considered and untimely action, is in danger of bringing Japan and its proud traditions into disrepute.
The Family Federation of Japan and its leaders have not been found guilty of any crime, so why is this happening at all? The Communist Party of Japan has openly admitted that it is behind the year-long campaign of anti-Unification disinformation and innuendo in the Japanese media ever since the death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last July, a fact that MEXT seems happy to ignore.
Indeed, the Japanese government has not even begun the criminal case against the actual and self-confessed assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, but has decided instead to focus its energies on attacking a small and innocent new religious faith community in clear violation of international laws on human rights and religious freedom to which Japan is a proud signatory.
The Kishida government should have paused to ask itself why the Communist Party of Japan has been so strident. It is because the Family Federation has always stood in opposition to the CPJ’s stated goals of the imposition of communist rule in Japan and of alliance and subjection to the much larger Communist China. For communists, all religion is dangerous, and any donation at all to any religion, whether small or large, is by definition too much. The systematic removal of religious, press and other freedoms that underpin democratic society is always one of the first goals of communism. The government of Japan should want no part of this.
Featured image above: From the header of the webpage of the Family Federation of the United Kingdom.
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