Next Target After Dissolution: Believers’ Rights

Not satisfied with dissolving the Family Federation, hostile activists advising the authorities are now targeting believers’ rights

On 1^st June 2026, Bitter Winter, a leading online magazine focused on human rights and religious freedom, published an article by international human rights lawyer Patricia Duval. In her analysis, Duval examines recent developments in Japan following the dissolution order issued against the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. She argues that the debate has evolved beyond allegations of organizational wrongdoing and has become part of a wider contest over the rights of believers to practice and maintain their faith.

More from Duval: Japan Breaking Faith of Children of Believers

More from Duval: Japan: Abusive State to Shape Children’s Beliefs

More from Duval: Japan’s Next Step: Indoctrination of Children

More from Duval: Beyond Dissolution: A Religious Purge in Japan?

More from Duval: Religious Freedom in Jeopardy After Dissolution

See also Japan: Only Freedom to Believe, Not to Practice

The Rights of Religious Communities

A central legal argument in the article concerns the status of religious communities under international law. Duval emphasizes that the Family Federation possesses a developed body of doctrine, a defined religious identity, and a large community of followers. For that reason, she argues, it qualifies as a religious community entitled to the protections recognized in international human rights instruments.

She observes that the dissolution of the principal Family Federation organization in Japan left many believers without established places of worship and without the institutional structure that had previously coordinated their activities. In her view, this situation makes the protection of individual religious rights even more important.

To support this position, Duval refers to guidelines issued by the Venice Commission, the constitutional advisory body of the Council of Europe. She highlights the Commission’s view that religious activities should not become illegal merely because an organization lacks formal legal registration.

The article further stresses that withdrawing legal personality from a religious organization should not deprive either the community or its members of the protections associated with freedom of religion and belief. Duval argues that collective penalties imposed on an entire religious community are inconsistent with the principle that responsibility for wrongdoing should rest with specific individuals.

Fundraising as a Religious Freedom Issue

Duval also addresses the issue of donations. She argues that religious communities cannot realistically function without financial support and that the ability to seek and receive voluntary contributions forms part of internationally recognized religious liberty.

In her view, attempts to prohibit believers from collecting donations after dissolution would effectively prevent them from maintaining religious institutions, organizing meetings, and sustaining communal religious life.

The article therefore frames fundraising not merely as an economic activity but as an aspect of religious practice protected under international human rights standards. Duval contends that restrictions targeting donations could become a mechanism for suppressing the religion itself.

Comparisons with Russia

One of the strongest arguments in the article involves comparison with developments in Russia. Duval notes that the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses has been banned there as extremist and that believers have faced prosecution for ordinary religious activities.

She points to a March 2026 decision by the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticizing Russia for violations of religious freedom in cases involving Jehovah’s Witnesses. According to Duval, the Committee required remedies for those affected and called for measures to prevent future violations.

The article suggests that proposals aimed at preventing Family Federation believers from gathering, fundraising, or practicing their faith could move Japan toward a model that resembles the Russian approach. Duval regards this possibility as deeply troubling from a human rights perspective.

International Cooperation Among Anti-Cult Activists

Duval further discusses cooperation between Japanese “anti-cult” lawyers and South Korean Christian organizations engaged in “anti-heresy” work.

According to the article, agreements were reached to coordinate efforts against groups classified as “cults” and to encourage legislation targeting such organizations. Duval interprets these developments as evidence that the campaign extends beyond Japan and reflects a broader movement seeking stricter controls on certain religious groups.

She also notes a statement from leading activist lawyer Hiroshi Yamaguchi (山口廣), founder of National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (NNLASS), indicating concern among his fellow Japanese activists that younger pastors have shown less interest in anti-cult faith-breaking [See editor’s note 1 below] activities than previous generations. The article suggests that this has encouraged greater cooperation with South Korean counterparts who remain active in “anti-heresy” initiatives.

Duval writes,

“The representative of the Japanese lawyers explained that they have a serious problem in Japan: pastors who have been ‘counseling’ believers and lost believers are in their 70s and 80s, and young pastors are not very involved. He stated that ‘People who offer counseling do not grow up much in Japan. I envy the Korean system, which has consultation offices all over the country. We want to work with the pastors.’ It appears that, since Japanese pastors have stopped practicing deprogramming [See editor’s note 1 below] and the ‘counseling’ of reluctant members has declined, Japanese lawyers are seeking to collaborate with Korean pastors who are actively fighting against heresy and who are known to continue engaging in such activities.”

Paris-based human rights attorney Duval also notes,

“Furthermore, to continue the purge that had been carried out for decades in Japan through the deprogramming [See editor’s note 1 below] of believers, the lawyers proposed measures aimed at ‘de-indoctrinating’ their children within the public school system.”

Focus on Second-Generation Believers

The final section of the article addresses children raised within the faith. Duval reports that NNLASS recommended policies intended to support what it describes as second-generation members [See editor’s note 2 below] of religious groups.

According to her account, these recommendations from “anti-cult” lawyers included educational and intervention measures designed to influence children who had grown up in the Family Federation. Duval characterizes such proposals as efforts to steer young people away from the beliefs of their parents.

She argues that these measures represent a continuation, through public institutions, of earlier attempts to coerce members to abandon their faith. The article notes that the recommendations the activist lawyers made in December 2023, were subsequently implemented in a government plan adopted already one month later, in January 2024.

Conclusion

In this first installment of her series, Patricia Duval emphasizes that the “anti-cult” acitivists are far from contented with the dissolution of the Family Federation in Japan and want to outright limit the rights of believers themselves. She contends that the activists seek not merely accountability for alleged wrongdoing but restrictions that would affect worship, religious association, fundraising, and the transmission of faith within families.

Throughout the article, Duval evaluates these developments through the lens of international human rights law. Her position is that dissolving a religious organization does not extinguish the rights of its members and that measures preventing believers from practicing their faith would conflict with internationally recognized standards of religious freedom.

More from Duval: Japan Breaking Faith of Children of Believers

More from Duval: Japan: Abusive State to Shape Children’s Beliefs

More from Duval: Japan’s Next Step: Indoctrination of Children

More from Duval: Beyond Dissolution: A Religious Purge in Japan?

More from Duval: Religious Freedom in Jeopardy After Dissolution

See also Japan: Only Freedom to Believe, Not to Practice

See also Did Korean Origins Shape Dissolution Outcome?

See also: Japan: The Political Origins of Smear Campaign

See also Corporation Dissolved – Organization Remains

Text: Knut Holdhus, editor

Featured image above: French international human rights lawyer Patricia Duval in Tokyo 5th February 2025. She is a member of the Paris Bar Association, specializing in international human rights law. Earned a degree in public law from Sorbonne University. Has defended the rights of religious and faith minorities both in France and internationally, including at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Council of Europe (CE), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union (EU), and the United Nations. Author of numerous academic papers on religion and freedom of belief. Photo: Sekai Nippo 

[Editor’s note 1: Coercive faith-breaking (“deprogramming”) 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.]

[Editor’s note 2: The term “second-generation members” generally refers to people who were raised in a religion by parents who belonged to a religious organization, rather than joining it themselves as adults.]

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