Parents Wasted $200,000 on Failed Faith-Breaking

Coerced to conform: Medical doctor reveals how he was abducted and confined to get his faith broken – his parents wasted huge amounts paying deprogrammers

Big Business of Deprogramming in Japan: More than 4,300 Cases – in Just One of Them, Parents Paid $200,000 to Professional Faith-Breakers

2nd part (final) of a speech by Dr. Hirohisa Koide (小出浩久) at a side event organized by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council, in hall 25 of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland 16th June 2025. Dr. Koide was introduced by the moderator Heiner Handschin as “a Japanese national, a medical doctor, and a victim of kidnapping and also so-called deprogramming, forced de-conversion, or forced renunciation of his belief. And this has happened based on non-state actors, but with the blessing of state and local authorities which turned a blind eye to it.”

See part 1: Doctor’s Ordeal of Abduction and Faith-Breaking

The confinement and persuasion continued for over ten months.

During that time, my parents could hardly ever leave that room. Furthermore, my father kept calling Miyamura (宮村峻) almost every night to report our situation. My father would be cursed [by Miyamura],

“Because of your bad attitude your son can’t abandon that strange religion!”

One night, my father said to me,

“If I let you go, and the activities of the anti-Family Federation movement become known publicly, they could not continue such activities anymore. I can’t let you out alive, I will kill you and then I will die too.”

Shouting that, he grabbed me by the neck and pushed me down. I realized that he was mentally exhausted. I had no choice but to lie and say that I had renounced my face.

He had been trained in the Japanese army when he was young, and he had said,

“Through that training, I am prepared to die for the purpose.”

For fear of being killed by my father I was forced to act as an anti-Family Federation person.

That was the beginning of my father’s mental suffering. His pain lasted for one year.

On Miyamura’s order, I was moved to a mountain villa. There, I was interviewed by a journalist, Yoshifu Arita (有田芳生), and a reporter from the popular weekly magazine named Bunshun.

The contents were used to criticize the Family Federation. Arita is currently a member of the Japanese Diet.

Then I was forced to appear on a TV program called the Special Report made by TBS, Tokyo Broadcasting System.

I was taken out from the room to the biggest riverbank in Niigata and filmed by TV camera. My father and several former believers surrounded me.

When filming, it seemed that Miyamura, the deprogrammer, was the leading person there. When my comments didn’t match his thoughts, he immediately interrupted me. He then said that the Family Federation was a group of crazy people who lacked human love.

The parts of my remarks were used by the anti-Family Federation media.

After exposing myself to such an extent, I was allowed to leave my apartment and walk to Matsunaga’s (松永康智) church while my father was watching.

There were about 10 people attending church who were in the same position as me, forced to give up their faith.

Only one month after attending the church, accompanied by my parents, I was brought together with Miyamura to two lawyers, Yamaguchi (山口広) and Kito (紀藤正樹). They had come with much violent criticism of the Family Federation on TV. I had to speak according to the instructions of my father and Miyamura.

The lawyers knew I was not free. Attorney Kito said,

“I think it’s time to let you go, don’t you? But I’ll have to let Miyamura make that decision.”

I couldn’t tell them of my basic human rights. I was forced to sign a legal contract to sue the Family Federation and the hospital.

I was not the only one in such a situation. At Matsunaga’s church, believers who had just been released from confinement were encouraged to meet such lawyers. I had learned that there was a group of lawyers who used people to achieve their own political purpose.

These former believers had been harmed by being confined by their own parents, and they still felt the fear of being locked up again. For that reason, they had no choice but to file a lawsuit as advised to by their lawyer.

And as soon as I had filed the lawsuit, I was supposed to engage in even more traumatic behavior. I was forced to go to the apartment where believers were confined, and I had to talk with them. I still regret my visit to the rooms of innocent believers. They were definitely suffering.

Matsunaga’s church held consultations and seminars for parents of believers every weekend. The pastor and the former believers convinced the parents that the only way to help the members was to confine them.

The pastor also explained the specific steps parents should take to lock their son or daughter up. It was also emphasized that only parents and siblings could do it.

In doing this, by recommending confinement, I had become a core member of the group. I felt that I was like a living dead.

By the way, I started to work in a hospital near the church as an assistant physician. I got the pleasure of being able to help others.

After two months of work at the hospital I got some money in my own bank account. I was then able to get out of the group, and I ran away to Tokyo.

I knew that my parents would be shocked. For the next two years, I could not tell my parents where I was. I thought that they were still interacting with Miyamura’s group and might have imprisoned me again.

In fact, following Miyamura’s advice, my father donated $20,000 to Matsunaga’s church for the construction of a new building.

After I wrote about this two-year experience in a book which made the anti-Family Federation activities publicly known, I could safely communicate with my parents and siblings.

My mother got Alzheimer’s disease and forgot all her resentment toward the Family Federation. I finally began to feel her original warm love for me.

My father said he had spent $200,000 for the kidnapping of me.

Thank you.

See part 1: Doctor’s Ordeal of Abduction and Faith-Breaking

Featured image above: Some of the speakers at the side event to the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on 16th June 2025. From left: Attorney Patricia Duval, Heiner Handschin, Dr. Massimo Introvigne, Dr. Hirohisa Koide. Photo: Screenshot from video recording by UPF.

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