Using Schools to Break Faith: Japan’s Policy

Japanese schools: Government Plan to “Re-Educate” Children of Unification Church Members Raises Human Rights Concerns

2nd part (final) of a message by Attorney Patricia Duval, a leading expert in legal matters at the intersection of religion, belief, and state regulation, delivered at a civil society side event 26^th September organized by the NGO the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in conjunction with the 60th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC60) in Geneva. The side event had as theme “Japan and Human Rights – Religious Cleansing in Japan: Eradication of an Entire Faith Community”.

2) Second point of concern: The Government Plan to re-educate the children against their parents’ faith

See part 1: UN Expert: “Japan’s Illegal Dissolution Request”

See also: Japan’s Plan to Break the Faith of Children

See Japan: 2nd-Gen Believers Being Abused in Schools

See also Religious Minorities: UN Experts Caution Japan

See also Breakthrough: High Court to Hear Active Members

See also Media-Driven Religious Cleansing in Japan Today

See also Outrage: Abe Killing Called “Socially Justified”

After Prime Minister Abe’s assassination, the anti-Unification Church lawyers’ network published various opinion papers in 2023 to push for repressive measures to be adopted by the government against the Church [See editor’s note below].

They issued one in particular on the issue of “second-generation members” which inspired a subsequent plan adopted by the government at a cabinet meeting in January 2024 to “re-educate” the children of Church [See editor’s note below] members within the Japanese public school system.

Based on a twisted and malicious re-interpretation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which protects the right of children to freedom of religion or belief, those lawyers have determined that children from minority religious groups have to be rescued from their parents’ faith, since, they allege, “children may not necessarily be practicing religion out of their own free will.”

Therefore, they maintain that “critical thinking” towards their parents’ faith should be instilled in them.

The lawyers justify it by stating that “individuals who grow up in such environments during the formative years of their personality often remain unable to break away from the religious doctrines instilled in them, even after reaching adulthood.”

It is clear from this explanation that the purpose is to prevent the children of Church [See editor’s note below] members from becoming believers themselves and followers of the religion in the future.

The plan adopted by the government provides for wide-spread education of children, who have not expressed any requests or problems, on potential abuses they could be the victims of due to their parents’ religious beliefs.

This includes wide-range distribution of cartoons figuring imposed religious education and verbal reprimands or mentions of hell as psychological abuse. It is coupled with distribution of “SOS mini letters” where children can ask for free information and counselling through hotlines.

The teachers are requested to identify and single out the children belonging to the Unification Church [See editor’s note below] community who would need specific “counselling” even “in the absence of explicit statements from the child”.

Then, for this counselling to be effective, the government plan provides that counsellors will be trained by hostile former members in order to utilize their “knowledge and expertise” concerning the Church [See editor’s note below].

Thus, the government is using former members hostile to the Church [See editor’s note below] as training instructors for counselling the children of current members, once these have been singled out from the rest of the children.

This constitutes a blatant violation of Japan’s duty of neutrality in religious matters and an impermissible interference with the right of parents to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions protected under the Covenant (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Thank you.

See part 1: UN Expert: “Japan’s Illegal Dissolution Request”

See also: Japan’s Plan to Break the Faith of Children

See Japan: 2nd-Gen Believers Being Abused in Schools

See also Religious Minorities: UN Experts Caution Japan

See also Breakthrough: High Court to Hear Active Members

See also Media-Driven Religious Cleansing in Japan Today

See also Outrage: Abe Killing Called “Socially Justified”

Featured image above: Attorney Patricia Duval, 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. Here, speaking at the UN Office in Geneva 16th June 2025. Edited screenshot from UPF video.

[Editor’s note: Although Patricia Duval uses the name “Unification Church” and also the word “church”, please be aware that the Unification Church in Japan in 2015 changed its name to Family Federation for World peace and Unification.]

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