Police Trust Shattered After Forced Confinement

Police inaction leads to crisis of trust as Japanese woman kidnapped twice for her faith is now afraid to report new violent attack to police

Tokyo, 24^th July 2026 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article.

Part 2 of the Series Dissolution Threatens the Human Rights of Believers

Alleged Kidnapping and Confinement Ignored

Growing Distrust of Police Leads Woman to Hesitate Before Reporting Broken Bones

by the Religious Freedom Investigative Team of the editorial department of Sekai Nippo

See part 1 of the series: When Religious Intolerance Turns Violent

“The problem of kidnapping and confinement has still not been clearly and fully resolved.”

So says Tomoe Asamori (pseudonym), a woman in her fifties living in Tokyo and a member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church).

See also Liquidation Takes Psychological Toll on Members

See also When Raising Children in Faith Turns Suspicious

See also Japan: FFWPU Case Signals Dangerous State Power

See also Today the Family Federation, Tomorrow a Temple?

See also “Even 20 Years If Needed”: Believers Vow to Endure

Twice, concerned about her religious donations and involvement with the religious organization, her parents confined her in apartments and other rooms in an attempt to force her to renounce her faith.

During one period of confinement, a pastor acting as a deprogrammer (faith-breaker) [See editor’s note 1 below] – who had been directing her relatives – struck her on the head with a floor cushion. Yet what shocked Asamori most was not the violence itself, but the fact that her parents lowered their eyes and pretended not to notice as the pastor assaulted her.

Supporters of deprogramming (faith-breaking) [See editor’s note 1 below] have argued that believers are under “mind control” [See editor’s note 2 below], making confinement necessary as part of what they describe as “protective persuasion” or “rescue”. Asamori strongly rejects that reasoning,

“They claimed they locked me up out of parental love to persuade and save me. But if that were true, why did they leave everything to the pastor and never intervene? The whole situation was completely contradictory.”

Police Allegedly Assisted the Forced Deconversion

Asamori also says that police personnel assisted in her confinement.

Regarding the first incident, she explained:

“One of my relatives knew a retired police officer. After being consulted, that former officer apparently agreed to cooperate and provided information.”

She also recalls another incident that left her deeply disappointed with the police shortly before her second confinement.

One day she accidentally lost her wallet, which was turned in to a police station. When she went to retrieve it, she noticed that an officer was staring at her with what she describes as “a strange expression”.

Only later did she learn why.

According to Asamori, her parents had telephoned the police station beforehand to inform officers that they intended to “take their daughter into protective custody” on a certain date and requested that the police “respond appropriately”.

In other words, if she cried out from inside the apartment and neighbors called the police, officers had effectively been asked not to intervene.

Having experienced what she believes were two occasions on which police ignored her kidnapping and confinement because she belonged to the Family Federation, Asamori says she gradually came to feel that reporting such incidents would be pointless.

Even after recently suffering serious injuries – including broken bones – when her brother pushed her down a flight of stairs at her parents’ home, she has hesitated to file a police report.

“To explain what happened, I’d inevitably have to talk about my religion. And in today’s climate, I don’t know whose side the police would take.”

She worries that there may be other Family Federation members experiencing violence behind closed doors without anyone knowing.

Sister Surprised by Brother’s Violence

According to Asamori’s younger sister, Natsumi (pseudonym), who was the only eyewitness to the recent incident, their brother had previously been violent not only toward her but also toward their parents.

However, she said he had never before become physically violent toward Tomoe.

“In fact, they probably communicated better than anyone else in the family.”

For that reason, she was shocked to see him assault his sister.

Natsumi also noted:

“My sister said she could smell alcohol coming from our brother’s room on the second floor. After our mother was gone, his eating habits deteriorated, and he may have become dependent on alcohol.”

She grimaced as she recalled that immediately after pushing his sister down the stairs, her brother’s “eyes looked like those of a demon.”

Where Did the Anti-Family Federation Materials Come From?

In front of the family’s Buddhist altar were books by lawyers and journalists critical of the Family Federation, along with photocopied articles.

Natsumi questioned how they came to be there.

“Knowing my brother’s personality, I doubt he would go to the trouble of printing out articles and keeping them himself.”

Years earlier, their parents had attempted to force Tomoe to abandon her faith through kidnapping and confinement, and their brother had attended study sessions connected with those efforts.

Natsumi believes the family’s names would likely have appeared on lists maintained through deprogramming (faith-breaking) [See editor’s note 1 below] networks, making it entirely possible that anti-Federation materials had been sent to them.

Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (安倍晋三), a flood of media criticism was directed at the Family Federation.

As Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) gathered evidence from former members and believers’ relatives in preparation for seeking a dissolution order against the religious organization, the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales – which can be described as having close ties to deprogrammers (faith-breakers) [See editor’s note 1 below] – along with others, cooperated in collecting such evidence.

Describing her brother as “serious and meticulous, but not someone who is good at thinking independently and taking initiative,” Natsumi said:

“If someone handed him materials and explained, ‘This is what the Unification Church is like,’ he might simply accept it as true.”

She added:

“I’m sure my brother has feelings he can’t put into words. It wasn’t just prejudice against religion. I think many emotions he couldn’t express built up over time until they finally exploded. Now he can’t bring himself to apologize, and he’s only driving himself further into a corner.”

See part 1 of the series: When Religious Intolerance Turns Violent

See also Liquidation Takes Psychological Toll on Members

See also When Raising Children in Faith Turns Suspicious

See also Japan: FFWPU Case Signals Dangerous State Power

See also When Children Are Taught to Suspect the Parents

See also Today the Family Federation, Tomorrow a Temple?

See also “Even 20 Years If Needed”: Believers Vow to Endure

Featured image above: Natsumi Asamori (pseudonym), who was present when her sister was assaulted in their family home. Photographed in Tokyo on the afternoon of the 17th by Takahide Ishii (石井孝秀)

[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: In Japan, the “mind-control” myth has been a powerful tool used to stigmatize and suppress new religious movements (NRMs), particularly since the 1980s. The concept suggests that NRMs manipulate or “brainwash” their followers, depriving them of free will and rational thought. This narrative gained traction after the 1995 Aum Shinrikyō sarin gas attack, when public fear of dangerous cults intensified. Although Aum was an extreme and violent exception, the incident cast suspicion on all NRMs, allowing critics, media, and the government to label diverse groups as manipulative or psychologically coercive.

The “mind-control” myth serves multiple social and political functions. It simplifies complex questions of belief, making it easier to portray converts as victims rather than as individuals exercising spiritual agency. This framing justifies legal and social intervention, including the coercive “deprogramming” of believers – sometimes involving confinement or psychological pressure to force renunciation of faith. Lawyers, ex-member groups, and certain media outlets have used the idea of mind control to construct NRMs as threats to family stability and national order, reinforcing social conformity and Japan’s preference for established, non-controversial religions such as Buddhism and Shinto.

In recent years, the myth resurfaced following the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose attacker cited resentment toward the Family Federation. A public outrage largely created by media reignited scrutiny of NRMs, and politicians and journalists revived “mind-control” rhetoric to explain fundraising and recruitment practices. Critics argue that this framing discourages genuine religious tolerance and critical examination of Japan’s restrictive religious climate. Overall, the “mind-control” myth functions less as a scientific or psychological concept and more as a moral panic – a cultural weapon used to delegitimize minority faiths and to reaffirm mainstream social norms about religion, obedience, and the boundaries of acceptable belief.]

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