Young Members Protesting Horrifying Persecution

Young victims of horrifying persecution speaking out against orchestrated campaign against minority faith Family Federation

Tokyo, 14th January 2025 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article. 

“Let’s Make Japan a Place Where People Can Freely Speak of Their Faith”

Family Federation members take to the streets in Shibuya, Tokyo

by the editorial department of Sekai Nippo

On 13^th January 2024, members of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church) held a rally and did street-preaching in front of Shibuya Station in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward to protest media coverage of their organization.

A woman in her 20s, a second-generation member affiliated with a Family Federation place of worship in Tokyo and working as a nurse, shared her experiences of being hurt by critical media reports. She recalled,

“What saddened me most was when a colleague at work, after seeing news about the Family Federation, said, ‘I feel sorry for the second-generation members.’

I strongly felt the stigma of being labeled as ‘someone people pity’ just for being a second-generation believer. My dream is for Japan to become a place where anyone can confidently talk about their faith.”

A man in his 20s, who joined the federation three years ago and has worked as a staff member at one of the places of worship in Tokyo since April last year, defended the organization. He emphasized,

“The media portrays us as anti-social, but that’s not true. Coming to this place of worship has brightened my life and has had a positive impact. I want people to find out for themselves what is true or false, using their own eyes and feet. Despite opposition from various people, I am determined to continue down this path.”

The rally also included a panel display highlighting cases where believers had been confined by members of their own family and others opposing the religious organization, in attempts to force the believers to renounce their faith.

[Editor’s note: Forced de-conversion 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 de-conversion 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 forced de-conversion. 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.]

Featured image above:  A second-generation member of the Family Federation doing street-preaching – afternoon of 13th January 2024, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. Photo: David Chang

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