FFWPU Europe and Middle East: Norishige Kondo: Total absence of justice and fairness in Japanese Government case

Norishige Kondo , Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Office of the Family Federation in Japan, speaking at a side event organized by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council, in hall 25 of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland June 16, 2025.

Legal spokesperson points out the total absence of justice and fairness in Japan’s dissolution case against Family Federation based on outdated civil harm claims and fabricated victims

Problems of the Tokyo District Court Decision on the Dissolution of the Family Federation

Norishige Kondo (left) and the panel of speakers at the side event to the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on June 16, 2025. From left: Kondo, Attorney Patricia Duval, Heiner Handschin, Dr. Massimo Introvigne, Dr. Hirohisa Koide

A speech by Norishige Kondo, Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Office of the Family Federation in Japan, at a side event organized by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council, in hall 25 of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland June 16, 2025.

See also “Religiocide” - Japan’s “Murder” of a Religion

The title of my presentation is “Problems of the Tokyo District Court Decision on the Dissolution of the

Family Federation”.

As was explained, our official name is Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, but I believe that you are familiar with our former name Unification Church. So in my presentation, I use the abbreviation UC to indicate our church.

After the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on 8th July 2022, the lawyers’ network against the UC created the false impression that serious and widespread harm caused by the UC occurred across the country. It is because the suspect quoted his grudge against the Unification Church as motive of the murder.

However, later we have found that the major lawyer [Hiroshi Yamaguchi] of the network stated in the July 2022 issue of a periodical [Consumer Law News] that the number of complaints [to the Consumer Affairs Agency] related to the UC has declined. [See Dangerous Precedent to Crush Religions]

It was the same month as the Abe incident, and therefore the claims by the network appear to be merely propaganda.

However, in those days, the media pressured the government. As a result, an unnecessary new law to control donations was enacted. The government even changed the legal interpretation for dissolving the UC. And finally it filed a lawsuit seeking the dissolution of the UC.

The government tried to dissolve the UC based on the Religious Hiroshi Yamaguchi, activist Corporations Act, article 81, paragraph 3, item 1, [which says that] leftwing lawyer and founder and the requirements [for dissolution] are “violation of law” and leading member of National “harming public welfare seriously and clearly”. Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (NNLASS) Prime Minister Kishida changed the legal interpretation overnight and included civil torts [civil wrongs causing alleged harm] in the concept of “violation of law” to dissolve the UC.

However, civil torts are too vague a concept to be grounds for dissolution, and such an interpretation violates ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] article 18, paragraph 3.

As for “public welfare”, the UN Human Rights Committee recommended Japan three times not to restrict religious freedom by [concerns for] public welfare.

The government ignored them. Surprisingly enough, the court accepted the change of legal interpretation and ignored the recommendation by the [UN Human Rights] Committee as well.

However, recently there were only a few tort [civil wrong causing alleged harm] cases related to the UC.

As a result, the government submitted fabricated written statements under the names of alleged “victims”. Yet the UC exposed the fabrications in the court.

Finally, the court found grounds for dissolution based on speculations saying there must be unknown cases of victims, and it issued a decision to dissolve the UC. Sign outside Tokyo District Regarding the civil cases, the UC instructed its members not to Court accept large amount of donations in 2009, and the number of the cases declined.

The Tokyo District Court found tortuous acts [civil wrongs causing alleged harm] based not only on civil judgments but also settlements. Even so, the total amount declined to 5% after 2009.

For dissolving a religious cooperation, there must be a presently existing motive. So the court found torts [civil wrongs causing alleged harm] based on speculation, violating the principle of judgment based on evidence.

Regarding the past tort cases, the majority of the plaintiffs were victims of deprogramming [See editor’s note 1 below].

The court relied only on deprogrammed apostates [See editor’s note 2 below] for facts dating back from 20 to 40 years before. In violation of international law, the court found what they according to social norms considered to be “illegalities”.

Strong proof of intentionally created court cases: correlation between number of deprogrammings and number of lawsuits

In this graph, the red line shows the number of believers who suffered deprogramming [See editor’s note 1 below], and the blue line shows the believers who sued the UC. These two lines show similarity. It means that even the past cases were intentionally created cases.

From every perspective, the decision to dissolve the UC can be deemed unjust.

We sincerely request the international community’s attention and monitoring regarding this issue.

Thank you for your attention.

Slightly edited for publication.

See also “Religiocide” - Japan’s “Murder” of a Religion

Also subject to faith-breaking attempts: Members of Soka Gakkai. Here students belonging to the faith in 2001

[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: Apostates here refer not just to someone who have left the religion, but who are now being used to undermine the group. The apostates in the text above are being used by hostile and cynical lawyers for malicious reasons to cause harm to the faith they were forced out of, when they had their faith broken coercively by so-called faith-breakers (deprogrammers), working in league with activist lawyers.]

Related to old civil harm claims: Japan Following the Way of China

Also related to old civil harm claims: Media Stereotypes and Misinformation Challenged

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Also related to old civil harm claims: After the N-Word: Is “Cult” Next Term to Be Banned?

Also related to old civil harm claims: Japan’s Dissolution Case Echoes China’s Playbook

And also related to old civil harm claims: “Lawyers Lying and Shaming Japan” for 50 Years

More, related to old civil harm claims: Lawfare: State Uses Legal System in War on Faith

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And yet more, related to old civil harm claims: Inhuman Government-Supported Mass Deprogramming

And still more, related to old civil harm claims: Bias: No Right to Respond for Religious Minority

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Yet more, related to old civil harm claims: State and Media Creating “Today’s Non-Citizens”

Still more, related to old civil harm claims: Japan Criticized for Glaring Rights Violations

And yet more, related to old civil harm claims: Two European Scholars Warning Japan

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Dr. Massimo lntrovigne addressing the side event to the 59t h sessio n o f the Human Righ ts Coun cil in Geneva, Switzerland on 16th June 2025. From !eh: Attorney Patricia Duval, Heiner Handschin, Dr. Massim o lntrovigne, D r. Hirohisa Koid e. Photo: Screenshot from video record ing by UPF. Send us a message A speech by Dr. Massimo lntrovigne at a side event organized by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) at the 59th session of the Human First Name • Last Name Rights Council, in hall 25 of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland 76th June 2025. Massimo lntrovigne is an Italian sociologist of religion and editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter, and one of the most well-known scholars of religion internationally. He is Email • Managing Director of CESNUR, Center for Studies on New Religions, Email Address Torino, Italy.

As you have heard, on 25th March, the Tokyo District Court ordered the Your Message • dissolution of the Unification Church [See edit or’s note below ], and t he case is under appeal.

You may have h eard, however, in the international media a lie that /, being dissolved only means you lose your tax-exempt status. This is false. Submit If you are dissolved in Japan, all the assets are t ransferred to a liqu idator - bank accounts and places of worship. The believers could still believe in their heart, but they cannot meet in any place, they cannot own property, t hey cannot funct ion. So it’s a h omicide.

And some scholars have About to become victim of even coined the word “religiocide”, the “murder “ of a “religiocide” for this case. religion, in Japan: Th e Family Federation, formerly the Unification We don’t have much time Church. Here, its flag w a ving in Tokyo. left, so I will try to answer Photo: FFWPU four questions about the “religiocide”: Why, when, by whom, and how was this, or is this crime being perpetrated?

Why? There are many colleagues who have stud ied the genera l hostility of Japan to re ligion. Japan is a very secular society, but it also has a long tradition of scapegoating foreign re ligions for all the p roblems of the country.

It was once Chri stianity, during the interwar period. But up until now, what’s going on now, it was the Jehovah’s Witnesses which are of course an American relig ion. And now it’s the Unification Church [See editor’s not e below], which is Korean. And there is a lot of anti-Korean racism going on as a subt ext of this story.

In 2022, Shinzo Abe, the former p ri me m inister, was assassinated by a man whose mother is a member of the Unification Church. The assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, was never a member, but he claimed he had k illed Sh inzo Tetsuya Yamagami, the man who Abe to punish him for h is killed Shinzo Abe, t h e former sympathy for the Unification prim e minister of Japan. Ph oto: Church [See editor’s note Andrew2592009 I Wikimedia below]. 20 years before, in 2002, Commons. License: CC ASA 4.0 Int. Yamagami’s mother went Cropped bankrupt - he said - because of excessive donations to the church.

Never mind that he waited for 20 years. Never mind that members of t he church gave back to the fami ly ha lf of the donations when t he re latives started complaining.

But that [the assassination] was a golden opportunity, which leads me to the third question - who?

Who promoted this? This was promoted not by polit ics. Politics initially t ried to resist it - t he government. It was p romoted by the media, and the media had been agitated for more than 20 years by an anti-Unification Church [See edito r’s note below], an anti-cu lt

association called the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales.

And we know this association, as hinted before, was founded by members of the Hiroshi Yamaguchi Socialist and Communist pa rt ies to eliminate (Li.J0/1;), activist the Unification Church [See editor’s note lehwing lawyer and below ]. an anti-communist organization, but founder and leading then to fight conservative religion in general. member of National Network of Lawyers And that’s why t hey also go against the Against Spiritual Jehovah’s W itnesses, but also against Sales (NNLASS). evangelical conservative Christian ity and Photo: Screenshot many other groups. I Bitter Winter

And this nationa l network was founded in 1987. They t ried for many years, unsuccessfu lly, to have the Unification Church [See editor’s note below] dissolved, until the assassination of Shinzo Abe offered them a golden opportunity.

But the opportunity was caught because the campaign existed before. It had the existed for more than 30 years actually, when A be was assassinated.

And final ly: how- how they did it.

They did it - and that’s the long and the short of the court decision - by accusing the Unification Church [See ed itor’s note below] of what they called “spiritua l sales”.

Miniature pagoda sold by members of the Unification Church in Japan. Photo: Bitter Winter

“Spirit ua l sales” is an expression invented by t h is anti-Unification Church association for sales of small pagodas, sea ls and other art ifacts - believed to bring good luck - that some believers from the Unification Churc h [See editor’s note below] back in the 1980s and early 90’s were selling for high prices. And then the lawyers extended the expression “spiritual sales” to donations.

Now question: Did these sales of artifacts for prices higher than t heir value happen? Yes. It happened decades ago and that was not an activity of the Unification Church [See edit or’s note below ] as a church. Unification Church is a Christian religion - they don’t deal in Buddhist charms or pagodas. It was an individual activity of some believers, and these believers were stopped eventual ly by the Unification Church. After the Unification Church [See editor’s note below ] stopped them, the number of complaints for the so-called “spiritual sa les” decreased to almost zero.

That’s not my opinion. That’s not the scholars’ opinion. That’s w ritten in the decision of the dissolution case that in the last n ine or ten years there have been almost no cases- three or four.

So why was the dissolution pronounced? Because these lawyers persuaded the government and the cou rt that even if there are no cases of “spiritua l sales”, there can be - perhaps hypothetically- because of the church being a “bad organization”. It’s true they stopped, but perhaps tomorrow, they wil l start again. And it seems they stopped, but perhaps they didn’t, and things are going on under the table, etc.

But that’s all speculation. Their own data, Persuaded the the data of the government, the data of government: Masaki the court in the dissolution case, say in Kito (JcffffeJE/if}, one of the recent years there have been no cases of hostile lawyers of “spiritual sa les”. That’s extremely National Network of important because the reason the court Lawyers Against Spiritual issued a dissolution order is because of Sales (fE/lff/’il~ffii;’lff/1~x:J the “spiritual sales”. Jff#ifl) and Nationwide Unification Church

In the media there has been a campaign uamage that they [church members) give a bad Countermeasures Legal Team (~1¥/,f/i- ifj{fpj_&’i!fx;J education to t h e children. No, that’s not part of the court case and of the J/I#Efffl/). He worked in league with faith- dissolution decision. It’s only about the breakers forcing believers donations and the “spiritual sa les”, which into lawsuits and did not happen in recent years. exploiting them to fit narrative: One of the Summing it up: within the c li mate of architects of new law and general hostility to religion, particularly to advisor to the Japanese foreign re ligion, an organization founded authorities. Photo: more than 30 years ago by communist Screenshot I Bitter Winter and socia list lawyers to destroy conservative religion, and in particular the anti-communist Unification Church, took the opportunity of the assassination of Shinzo Abe to revamp its campaign and used as the fina l weapon the “spiritua l sales”. The name (term) was invented by those lawyers, but it was referring to somet hing which some members of the Unification Church [See editor’s note below] did decades ago, and which had stopped.

But it was said perhaps it didn’t stop, perhaps it goes on secretly, but there is no evidence for this.

So we have a lega lly sanctioned “religiocide”, or killi ng of a rel igion, which is not supported by evidence. It’s motivated by politics and takes advantage of a c limate hostile to conservative re ligion in general in a deeply secular society, and a society with a considerable degree of xenophobia where many are happy to bash a church whose h eadquarters are in Korea.

[Editor’s note: Althoug h Dr. lntrovigne uses t he n ame Unification Church, in 2075 the re lig ious orga nization in Japan officially changed its name to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.]

Fea t ured image above: Or. Massimo lntrovigne addressing the side event to the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on 16th June 2025. Photo: Screenshot from video recording by UPF.

Related to “religiocide” - Japan’s “murder”: Japan Following the Way of China

Also related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Media Stereotypes and Misinformation Challenged

Also related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Media Criticized for Stereotyping Minorities

Also related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Aher the N-Word: Is “Cult” Next Term to Be Banned?

Also related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Japan’s Dissolution Case Echoes China’s Playbook

And also related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: “Lawyers Lying and Shaming Japan” for 50 Years

More, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Lawfare: State Uses Legal System in War on Faith

Also related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Media/Legal Expert: Communism Behind Persecution

And more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: M ilitant Lawyers Dictate Government Policy

And more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Media Helping Terrorist Reach His Goal

Related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Kishida Administration Giving in to Terrorism

And more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: 12 Religious Freedom NGOs Denouncing Japan

Yet more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Japanese Communists’ Final War

Still more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Political and Social Activism behind Oppression

And yet more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Opposition Inciting Regime to Excessive Steps

And still more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Journalist Reveals Ugly Lehw ing Conspiracy

And even more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Gingrich: Kishida Joining Communist Campaign

Yet more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: The 3 Enemies of Religious Liberty

Still more, related to “religiocide”-Japan’s “murder”: Lawyer Exposes Dirty Le~wing Plot

And yet more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Inhuman Government-Supported Mass Deprogramming

And still more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Bias: No Right to Respond for Religious Minority

And even more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Collusion to Rob Minority of Its Rights

Yet more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: State and Media Creating “Today’s Non-Citizens”

Still more, related to “religiocide” - Japan’s “murder”: Japan Criticized for Glaring Rights Violations

And yet more, related to “religiocide” -Japan’s “murder”: Two European Scholars Warning Japan

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