FFWPU Europe and Middle East: Dr. Michael Mickler - Will PM Kishida's stepping down bring Religious Freedom to Japan?

On August 14, 2024, Prime Minister Kishida held a press conference regarding his decision not to run for the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election

Dissolution of the Kishida Administration: A Boon for Religious Freedom in Japan?

Under Kishida, Japan went through the worst religious liberty crisis in its recent history. Will his successor improve the situation?

by Dr. Michael Mickler

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration championed the dissolution of the Family Federation / Unification Church (UC) in Japan, but the initial result has been its own dissolution. At a press briefing on August 14, Kishida announced that he would step down as leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Dr. Michael Mickler September. But whether his resignation will halt actions that have had a chilling effect on religious freedom in Japan is an open question.

Outrage against the Family Federation, and repressive measures against unpopular religious groups generally, escalated following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 8, 2022. The assassin told investigators that he shot Abe in retaliation for Abe’s support of the Unification Church and that he held a grudge against the church over his mother’s donations more than twenty years previously.

Japanese media subsequently exposed ties between the Unification Church and the LDP.

The Kishida administration reacted with vengeance. On August 31, 2022, the LDP stated it would no longer have any relationship with the Unification Church and its associated organizations. On October 16, Kishida announced that the government would open an investigation into the Family Federation and three days later reversed legal precedent by stating that civil complaints rather than criminal violations could serve as a basis of dissolution. On October 13, 2023, the Kishida administration petitioned the Prime Minister Kishida, August 14, 2024 Tokyo District Court to issue an order to

dissolve the Family Federation.

The Kishida administration did not only target the Family Federation. Related legislation carried a more general anti-religious animus. In December 2022, the Japanese Diet passed a Prevention of Unfair Solicitation of Donations by Corporations Act, which granted broad recovery rights to those claiming to be victims of “mind control” as well as to relatives and others objecting to donations on grounds of mind control.

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare then issued new guidelines on “the religious abuse of children”. Drafted in consultation with the Japanese Society for Cult Prevention and Recovery (JSCPR), the guidelines had the immediate effect of generating a climate of discrimination and hate against the Jehovah’s Witnesses who reported a 638% increase in hate crimes in 2023 as compared to the previous six years.

UN Special Rapporteur: UN Special Rapporteur: Irene Khan UN Special Rapporteur: Nazila Ghanea UN Special Rapporteur: Farida Shaheed Clément Nyaletsossi Voule

This came to the attention of four UN Special Rapporteurs who sent an official letter to the government of Japan expressing concern over the “stigmatization of some religious or belief minorities,” a situation they described as “warranting immediate action.”

Still, concerns expressed by the international human rights community did not prompt Kishida’s resignation. Japanese were mostly dissatisfied with his handling of financial scandals within the LDP. Essentially, he adopted a cancel-culture approach, removing cabinet ministers and dissolving party factions rather than engaging underlying problems. This paralleled his approach to “societally problematic” groups such as the Family Federation and Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the end, he cancelled himself.

The question remains whether Kishida’s resignation will improve the situation. This will to some extent depend upon his successor. However, negative “cult” stereotypes and systemic barriers to Levi McLaughlin, 2020 religious freedom in Japan should not be underestimated.

Japan religion expert Levi McLaughlin points out a distinction in Japanese culture between “good religion” embedded in Japanese “culture, custom, spirituality, tradition, or another safe tradition” and “aberrant sects, misleading superstitions, nefarious cults, and other heterodoxies.” These minority groups account for what he describes as Japan’s “unease with religion” and trigger periodic “moral panics.”

Conformist tendencies that characterize Japan’s judiciary and media accentuate social prejudices. Critics of the Japanese court system have highlighted its restraint toward actions of the executive and legislative branches of government, its lack of transparency (Japan does not utilize juries, and proceedings are private), and a presumption of guilt culture in which government prosecutors win 99.9% of criminal cases and 98% of appeals. This has implications for the Family Federation dissolution case brought by the Kishida administration.

Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett Japan has the lowest ranking among G-7 nations on media freedom. speaking at International Restrictive, government-approved “Kisha kurabu,” or press clubs are Religious Freedom Summit in a major reason for this. Once the government distances itself from an Washington DC 31st January unpopular group, or labels it a social evil, reporters limit themselves 2024 to one-sided, negative stories. “Near universal censorship`

Katrina Lantos Swett, former Chair of the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, has used the metaphor of “drunk drivers” to describe democratic countries that pursue misguided crusades against marginal religions. It’s questionable whether Kishida’s resignation signals a new day for religious freedom in Japan. It does signify that Japan will have a new, hopefully soberer designated driver.

The article has also been published by Bitter Winter on 27th August 2024.

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Japan: Re ( 11

JAPAN • MEDIA • RELIGIOUS FREEDOM • COMMEMORATING • VARIOUS • REVIEWS •

Kyodo News: 100s Of Rights Share li’IEIEIEIEI Violations Claimed June 24, 2024 • Knut Holdhus

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Large Japanese news agency reports on Symposium With 2 A uthors Of hundreds of rights violations suffered by Books On minority faith Movement August 20, 2024 by Knut Holdhus A fte r Kyodo News, the leading news agency of More And More Japan, issu ed it s report o n 23 rd J u n e 2024, d ozen s Believers Raising Their Voices o f Japan ese n ewsp apers, including la rge ones like August 19, 2024 th e Sankei Shimbun and Tokyo Shimbun, have report ed on h und reds of huma n rig hts violations

.. and other dam ages suffered by m embers of the Fam i ly Federation, form erly the U nification Church throughout J apan.

Accord i ng t o the Kyodo News Search. repo rt, the Fa mily Federation h ad received a number o f in q uiries fro m variou s n ews o u tlets, and in Fam i ly Federati on, formerly t h e Unification Church thro ughout J apan .

Accord i ng to the Kyodo News repo rt, the Fa mily Federation h ad received a number o f in q uiries fro m various n ews outlet s, and in respon se t o th ose, it released a THE SANKEI ~UllHUIN Search. ..

statement on 22nd June claiming PEPI a \11111•1 u u n that since 3 th July 2022, there had been “a total of 337 cases of human Categories rights violations and other damages had been repo rt ed by believers and churches nationw ide up to December of last year”. 3 th Ju ly 2022 is the day former Prime Min ister Shinzo Abe was ki lled by assassin Tetsuya Yamagami, who claimed grudges aga inst the Family Federation.

The huge number of open host i lities against Send us a message t he Family Federation include graffiti sprayed First Name * La st Name on cars, and w indows of church faci lities being broken during prayer sessions. Email * • Accord ing to the large Email Address news agency, t he Family Federat ion also alleged Your Message * Graffiti sprayed on Family Federation t hat contracts to facilities in Japan after the Abe purchase cars under the assassination in July 2022. Photo: FFWPU church’s name were signed at used car dealerships affi liated w ith Toyota and Nissan, but the purchases were later refused. Toyota denied t hese claims, stating, “There is no truth to it,” Submit while Nissan comment ed, “We do not disclose individual t ransactions and have not issued any directives regarding sales to the church.”

The Family Federation announced that it w ill present these detai ls in writing to Tokyo District Court during the hearings for the dissolution order requested by the Kish id a adm in istration. The Graffiti sprayed on Family Federation relig ious organization facilities in Japan after the Abe also reported recu rri ng assassination in July 2022. Photo: FFWPU incidents of graffiti w it h messages like “Trait or cult” and “Cult , get out,” along w it h nuisance phone ca lls at churches i n various locations across the nation.

Kyodo News also reported that conflic ts wit h in fam ilies belonging to the Family Federation regarding faith and donations have i n tensified. For example, a woman in her 70s from the Tokyo metropolitan area sustained a fract u re after being assaulted by her husband, who acqui red negative views of the religious organization fol lowing the assassination of the popular former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In another case, a woman in her 60s from t he same reg ion reported that her re lation sh ip with her da ughter rapidly deteriorated after the m ed ia linked the cold- blooded murder of Abe t o the Family Federation. It culminat ed in t he daughter’s suicide in July 2022, soon after the assassination.

The statement issued by the Family Federation on 22 nd June gives a deta iled overview of t he human rights violations and other damages suffered by the religious organization and its members since the huge number of sensationalist biased m edia articles th at turned truth on it s head, claiming it was the Family Federation that was t he perpetrat or and the assassin a victim.

Featured image above: Shidome Media Tower, located in Shiodome, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Floors 7-24 are the headquarters of Kyodo News, Japan’s largest news agency Photo: ~ License: CC ASA 3.0 Unp.

Text: Knut Holdhus

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