Regulation as Faith Repression: A Global Trend

From Japan to the world: The rise of “soft” control of religions as regulation becomes the new face of faith suppression

A Dangerous Precedent: Japan’s Assault on Religious Freedom and Its Global Fallout – 2

Part 3 (final) of an address by Peter Zoehrer, journalist and Executive Director, FOREF Europe (Forum for Religious Freedom Europe), given at the plenary session on day one, 18^th November 2025, of the CESNUR 25 Conference at the CTICC-1 (Cape Town International Convention Center 1) in Cape Town, South Africa. CESNUR is short for Center for Studies on New Religions, an international network of associations of scholars working in the field of new religious movements. The conference was co-organized by CESNUR, African Hidden Voices, African Forum for Religious and Spirituality Liberty (AFRSL), and International Society for the Study of New Religions.

See part 1: Warning Signal from Japan: Dangerous Precedent

See part 2: Rising Religious Persecution in SKorea, Japan

See also: A Dissolution Built on Fabrications, Speculation

See also: Selective Justice: Special Law Against One Faith

The Copy-cat Effect: From Asia to Africa and Europe
We must be vigilant ‒ because the implications extend far beyond Japan. We are already seeing the early signs of a “copy-cat effect”: bureaucratic mechanisms replacing overt repression; regulation replacing theology; faith communities quietly edged out. Here are just a few of numerous examples:

Consider:

• In Rwanda: during field inspections in July-August 2024, approximately 7,700 churches were reportedly closed for failure to meet registration, leadership-qualification or safety standards. (This refers to widely reported crackdowns on churches.)
• In South Africa: On 5^th October 2025, the CRL Rights Commission announced the formation of a “Section 22 Committee” to oversee religious groups ‒ raising concerns about mandatory registration, licensing of pastors, and state oversight of religious assembly.
• In Europe: Agencies such as France’s MIVILUDES and networks like FECRIS have reportedly consulted Japanese officials about applying similar regulatory strategies to minority religions.

This is not religious reform. This is a contagion of soft totalitarianism, where religion is not openly banned, but quietly un-enabled through regulation and removal of legal recognition.

Why This Matters for All of Us
Let me emphasise: this is not simply a theological debate; it is not just about one group in one country. It is about a principle. If a government can dissolve a registered religious organisation ‒ not because of crime, but because of public stigma, media pressure, and unproven allegations ‒ then any minority is vulnerable.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” ‒ Article 18

If this right applies only to the popular, the traditional, or the politically approved, then it applies to no one.

When the state leans on “public welfare”, “social harmony”, or “protection from exploitation” to deregister or dissolve belief organisations, the slippery slope begins. First one group is targeted; then the next; then the next.

Freedom of religion is the litmus test of democracy. How a country treats its minorities ‒ not its majority ‒ is the true measure of its democratic credibility.

A Call to Moral & Academic Leadership
Here, at this plenary session on Day One, we are not only attendees ‒ we are guardians of conscience, scholarship and freedom. So I call upon you:

• Academics: Engage seriously with the Japanese narrative. Challenge it with facts, contexts, comparative global perspectives.
• Journalists: Break the media firewall. Restore balance, give voice to second-generation believers, to those whose stories are hidden.
• Governments, NGOs, international bodies: Speak clearly. Speak courageously. Do not wait for the precedent to be entrenched. Act now — before this becomes the accepted norm.

If there was ever a moment for the global community of scholars, activists, journalists and defenders of religious liberty to mobilise ‒ that moment is now. What happens in Tokyo today may reverberate in Kigali tomorrow, in Johannesburg next year, in Paris before too long. Because the dissolution of the Family Federation in Japan ‒ and the detention of its senior leadership in Korea ‒ is not just a national legal action; it is a global precedent. If left unchallenged, it may serve as a model for religious repression globally.

Concluding Appeal
So let us protect freedom ‒ before it’s too late.

May we stand together ‒ across borders, across faiths and beliefs, across academic disciplines ‒ to affirm that every person has the right to believe, to associate, to practise faith, and to organise community ‒ without fear, without interference, simply because of their conscience.

Thank you for your attention.

See part 1: Warning Signal from Japan: Dangerous Precedent

See part 2: Rising Religious Persecution in SKorea, Japan

See also: A Dissolution Built on Fabrications, Speculation

See also: Selective Justice: Special Law Against One Faith

Featured image above: Regulation as repression of faith. Illustration: ChatGPT, December 2025. 

Related to regulation as faith suppression: Lawfare: State Uses Legal System in War on Faith

Also related to regulation as faith suppression: MEXT’s Legal Spin and “Dissolution at All Costs”

Also related to regulation as faith suppression: UN Report: Japan’s Lawfare Against Faith Minority

And also related to regulation as faith suppression: Protesting No Transparency in Closed-Door Trial

More, related to regulation as faith suppression: Dangerous Flaws in Dissolution Order Decried

Also related to regulation as faith suppression: “Lawyers Lying and Shaming Japan” for 50 Years

And also related to regulation as faith suppression: Japan Following the Way of China

And also related to regulation as faith suppression: Japan’s Dissolution Case Echoes China’s Playbook

More, related to regulation as faith suppression: Media/Legal Expert: Communism Behind Persecution

And more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Militant Lawyers Dictate Government Policy

More, related to regulation as faith suppression: Collusion to Rob Minority of Its Rights

And more, related to regulation as faith suppression: State and Media Creating “Today’s Non-Citizens”

Still more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Japan Copying China: State Seizure of Churches

And still more, related to regulation as faith suppression: 12 Religious Freedom NGOs Denouncing Japan

More, related to regulation as faith suppression: 4300 Abductions and Forcible Detentions

And more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Japan: Families Fear for Graves of Loved Ones

Yet more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Lawyers Manipulating, Coercing, Lying

Also related to regulation as faith suppression: Kishida Follows Anti-Family Federation Minister

Also related to regulation as faith suppression: Militant Lawyers Dictate Government Policy

Still more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Malicious One-Sided Government Source Selection

Yet more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Kishida’s Self-Defeating Populist Decisions

And still more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Japan Urged to Make U-Turn

And yet more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Dangerous Precedent to Crush Religions

Even more, related to regulation as faith suppression: Japan Following the Way of China

Yet more, related to faith suppression: Japanese Communists’ Final War

Still more, related to faith suppression: Political and Social Activism behind Oppression