FFWPU Europe and the Middle East: Japanese Attack Unificationism in a Nutshell

Victim of abduction and attempted forced de-conversion gives overview of Japanese onslaught on the Family Federation since Abe assassination

Part 1 of edited version of a presentation by Norishige Kondo (近藤徳茂), author and Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Department of the Family Federation of Japan, on 13th June, the second day of the 2024 CESNUR Conference, during session 8 (plenary, chaired by Dr. Eileen Barker), which had the theme “The Unification Church and Japan: What Is Exactly Happening?” Kondo is a victim of kidnapping, forcible detention and attempted faith-breaking.

The 2024 CESNUR Conference was held from 12th to 15th June at the University of Bordeaux Norishige Kondo - Bordeaux, France June 12. 2024 Montaigne in Bordeaux, France with the theme: “The Contribution of Minority Religions to Society”. The conference was co-organized by: Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CLIMAS (Cultures et littératures des mondes Anglophones), and International Society for the Study of New Religions (ISSNR).

I will talk about the Family Federation dissolution issue in Japan.

First, let’s look at the course of the dissolution case, the chronology of events after the Abe assassination incident on 8th July 2022.

The lawyers’ group National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (NNLASS), which is hostile to the Unification Church, held a press conference and accused the Unification Church of being a “great evil”.

In August 2022 Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan 2012-2020. proclaimed without careful investigation, “The delivering a message via video at a Rally of Hope in Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will cut the Gapyeong, South Korea 12th September 2021 ties with the Unification Church.”

19th October 2022, Kishida changed the interpretation of the Religious Corporations Act (RCA) overnight so that the Unification Church could be dissolved.

On 13th October 2023, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) filed a lawsuit to the court requesting the dissolution of the Unification Church.

In a periodical named Consumer Law News, the July 2022 issue, Lawyer Hiroshi Yamaguchi, a core member of National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (NNLASS), hostile towards the Unification Church, published an article and stated, “Consultation cases for claims against the Unification Church have decreased recently.”

However, after the Abe assassination, the same month that periodical was published, National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (NNLASS), including Yamaguchi, accused the Unification Church and made it appear as if it still caused serious damages.

The media accused the Unification Church of being “anti- social”, claiming that it previously had lost torts. The media Front page of Japanese Consumer blamed lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Laws News July 2022 who had ties with the Unification Church.

And those media attacks caused hostility against the Unification Church. Extreme right-wing groups screamed through loudspeakers in front of the Unification Church headquarters, “Get out of Japan!”

Writing denouncing the movement was painted on the wall of a local church: “Cult out of Japan!”

Threatening letters were sent to the headquarters and local churches.

Finally, on 31st Aug. 2022, Prime Minister Kishida proclaimed, “The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will cut ties with the Unification Church.”

However, most Unification Church believers work in regular companies, hospitals, banks, and even at the national and local government levels.

In order for LDP lawmakers to follow this direction, they would have to investigate the beliefs of everyone they contact, and if anyone is identified as a Family Federation believer, sever ties. This violates the Japanese Constitution.

Prime Minister Kishida then took extraordinary actions, one after the Threatening letter sent to the other, to support this outrageous proclamation. Family Federation of Japan in 2022 In the end, he rushed to order the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to file a lawsuit against the Family Federation, requesting its dissolution to the court.

I’d like to present a list of disputed points in the dissolution case. On a legal level, following the interpretation change by Prime Minister Kishida, MEXT claims civil torts are included in the concept of “violation of law” as one of the requirements of dissolution.

Based on this legal claim, MEXT claims that the Unification Church case constitutes a violation of law, quoting the following reasons:

■ The Unification Church lost 22 tort cases. Later they revised the number of cases to 31.

■ 257 people wrote testimonies against the Unification Church. Later 30 more persons were added.

■ On a legal level, the Unification Church asserts that the legal claim of MEXT is contrary to precedent-setting rulings.

■ In Unification Church cases torts were established by deviation of social norms. The level of illegality is very low.

■ In order to include torts as requirement for dissolution, torts must be interpreted as “illegalities”, which is a very vague concept. Dissolving a religious corporation by such a vague concept is a violation of due process. The front page of the book “Don’t Family Federation Members Have Human On a factual level, the Unification Church asserts the Rights?” by Shinichi Tokunaga, Mamoru following: Kamono, and Norishige Kondo, published in Japanese June 2023 by Goodtime ● In the past, groups of believers taught the Unification Publishing Church doctrine to visitors by video lectures at their institutes. They tended to introduce the church name to the visitors after they had learned the doctrine, but before they decided to join the Unification Church.

● In civil cases this practice has been judged to be both lawful and unlawful.

● More than half of the ex-members who filed lawsuits against the Unification Church, or who wrote the testimonies against it, were victims of deprogramming.

● The courts basically issue judgments in accordance with apostates’ narratives.

“The Committee is concerned at reports of abductions and forced confinement of converts to new

religious movements by members of their families in an effort to de-convert them (articles 2, 9, 18, 26).The State party should take effective measures to guarantee the right of every person not to be subject to coercion that would impair his or her freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief.”

From header of UN document with United Nations’ recommendations to Japan on human rights of believers. Under the heading “Abduction and forced de-conversion”, it states:

As for the deprogramming issue, in 2014, the UN Human Rights Committee issued a recommendation to the Japanese government to resolve the situation of deprogramming in Japan.

Originally, the government should have addressed this issue, but instead the Kishida administration now tries to dissolve the Unification Church using testimonies from deprogrammed apostates. This is an outrageous human rights violation.

I also am a victim of kidnapping, and there are some more victims here at this conference.

To be continued. Part 2 coming soon.

More on Japanese onslaught: Japan: 4300 Abductions and Forcible Detentions

And more on Japanese onslaught: Illegalities of Activist Lawyers Exposed

Yet more on Japanese onslaught: Lawyers Manipulating, Coercing, Lying

Still more on Japanese onslaught: Biased Information from Leftwing Lawyers

Even more on Japanese onslaught: Dangerous Precedent to Crush Religions

And yet more on Japanese onslaught: Japan Following the Way of China

And still more on Japanese onslaught: Lawyers and Deprogrammers Hand in Hand

And even more on Japanese onslaught: Police Turns Blind Eye to Forcible Detention

And yet even more on Japanese onslaught: Forcibly Medicated to Break His Faith

More on Japanese onslaught: Sinister Plot of Hostile Lawyers Exposed

More on Japanese onslaught: Collusion to Rob Minority of Its Rights

More on Japanese onslaught: Deliberate Lies Caused Abe Assassination

More on Japanese onslaught: Lawyers Using Witnesses under Duress

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HAK JA HAN … I JAPAN … RELIGIOUS FREEDOM … I COMMEMORATING …

Biased Information From ma a e Leftwing Lawyers Share: a October 14, 2023 • Knut Holdhus

Japanese Onslaught On Movement In A Nutshell June 20, 2024

Kidnapped, Forcibly Detained, And Deprogram me June 18, 2024

Good Summary Of Fierce Persecution In Japan June 16, 2024

Arbitrary Dissolution Of Any Religion Looming June 15, 2024

Danger Of Disregarding Voice Of Religion June 14, 2024

Nation’s Attacks On Minority Faith From the header of ffwpujp, the official homepage of the ~.9Y.Jl_ac~fire Disregarding Voice Of Religion June 14, 2024

Nation’s Attacks On

1 “ 1111 …, 11 1..,Y I Ull’- 11 From the header of ffwpujp, the official homepage of the May Backfi re Family Federation of Japa n. June 13, 2024

Press release claims Japanese Press Release government made decision based O n Case St ag e d By on biased information Host ile Lawyers The Family Federation of Japan issued a press release on June 12, 2024

12th October 2023,

In response to the policy of requesting a dissolution order against our corporation Search. IEII On 12th October, the Min istry of Education, Categories Cultu re, Sports, Symbol of t he Min ist ry o f Educa t ion, Cult ure, Science and Sports, Science a n d Technology o f Jap an. Technology Ph oto: R ll/Jf.+# iif (MEXT Japan)/ Wikimedia (MEXT) Commons. License: CC Attr 4.0 Int announced that it wi ll fi le a req u est for a d issolution order for the Family Fede ration for Send us a message World Peace and Unification (hereinafter referred to as “the Corporation”) to the Tokyo District Court. We wou ld like to First Name Last Name announce our views on th is. *

The corporation is extremely d isappointed, and it is deeply regrettable that such a decision has been made: It is particularly d istressing that the Japanese government made Email * that momentous decision based on biased information from a group of leftwing lawyers established with the aim of Email Address destroying our corporation.

Your Message * On 19 th October last year, Prime Minister Kishida overnight forcibly changed the long-standing government’s interpretation of the law t hat “civil law torts are not included” in the legal violation requirement for requesting a d issolution order for a relig ious corporation. “Civi l law torts may also be involved,” he replied in the Diet. This is clearly a result of the Submit opposition’s pursuit and pandering to public opinion and w i ll remain a stain on Japan’s constitutional history.

From a large Family Federation demonstrat ion against a biased Japanese media 18th August 2022 in Seoul. Photo: IMAP

What changed everything was the assassination of former Prime Min ister Shinzo Abe in Ju ly last year. Ou r religious organisation is no different from what it was before. Nevertheless, the envi ronment surrounding ou r organisation went through a roller coaster transformation, and before we knew it, we were being portrayed as “absolutely evil” monsters in media reports.

Since receiving certif ication by the To kyo Metropolitan Government as a religious corporation on 15th July 1964, our relig ious organisation has to this day been engaged in evangelism, education, and va rious socia l activities w it h the aim of spreading the founders’ teach ings of “living for the sake of others”. Our d ream has been to realize world peace through ideal fami lies centered on God. Ou r aim has been to become an o rgan isation that lives for Japan and the world.

During t hat time, we received a lot of criticism, but since t he Declaration of Compliance in 2009, we have been actively engaged in chu rch reform, especially by appointing leaders from a new generation of future leaders. We have conti nued to p romote reforms up to the present. In September last year, we

established a “Church Reform Promot ion Headquarters” within the corporation to work on further reforms.

In that sense, the government’s request for a dissolution order is extremely unfortunate for both the o lder generation of church members and the new second and thi rd generations who w ill be taki ng over the church.

We are convinced that we are not the kind of relig ious organisation to receive a dissolution order from the government. Those who have been in direct contact with our cong regations, those who have k nown us for many years, wil l agree. However, we are keen ly aware that we were not able to convey a true picture of our re lig ious organisation to the maj ority of the public, who swal lowed the med ia reports that only spewed out flimsy informat ion by left-wing lawyers on TV shows and in other media outlets.

We intend to present our lega l arguments i n court. In addition, we w ill continue to actively dissem inate information and do other activities so that the public can come to understand our relig ious organisation as wel l as possib le.

Featured image above: Sign at the entrance of the headquarters of the Family Federation of Japan in Shibuya, Tokyo. Photo: FFWPU

“Biased Information from Leftwing Lawyers” - the text consists of press release from the Family federation of Japan on 12th October 2023.

More about bia sed informat ion: Response to Scandalous Bias

Even more about biased information: Pure Activism in Japanese Media

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