Japanese journalist exposes ugly leftwing conspiracy at the core of the dissolution case against Family Federation
Prepared by Knut Holdhus
Masumi Fukuda, award-winning Japanese author and investigative journalist, has penned an in-depth report titled “Dissolve the Anti-Cult Lawyer Group, Not the Unification Church.” She is referring to a group of leftwing activist lawyers who have specialized in fabricating false “victims”.
In a series of four articles, Bitter Winter, the online magazine for human rights and religious freedom, has published her report originally written in Japanese and published by the magazine Monthly Hanada in its February 2024 issue.
On 31st January 2024, Bitter Winter published the 4th of its four articles in English. It was headlined “Deprogrammed, Then Compelled to Sue’”.
Part 4 (Click to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
In this part, Fukuda points out that more than half of those who went to court against the Family Federation, then called the Unification Church, had suffered kidnapping and deprogramming before they were asked to take legal action in order to prove they really had given up their faith.
Fukuda returns to the discussion surrounding the request for a dissolution order. She details how it has come to light that the 32 judgments that acknowledged the church’s liability for compensation are highly problematic. Among those judgments, 22 recognized the responsibility of the Family Federation towards former members who acted as plaintiffs, with a compensation totaling approximately 1.4 billion yen. The malignancy of those cases was cited as the grounds for the government to exercise its right to ask questions, a process that occurred in November 2022.
With details of those 22 cases somewhat made known, Tatsuki Nakayama, the attorney representing the Family Federation, meticulously scrutinized each judgment. Surprisingly, it was discovered that out of the total 231 plaintiffs, 55.4%, or 128 individuals, were former members who became victims of abduction, forcible detention, and deprogramming.
For instance, in 2001, there were two such plaintiffs at Hiroshima High Court Okayama Branch, and 80% of the 21 plaintiffs at Sapporo District Court. In 2002, Tokyo District Court dealt with 3 such plaintiffs, while at Niigata District Court there were 58.
However, concerning the ten newly added cases, no information has been revealed regarding the reasons for leaving the church. With the submission of the dissolution request, the judicial system is now tasked with making judgments. Yet, since the proceedings will occur behind closed doors, there remains a possibility that a dissolution order might be given with minimal information made public until the judgment is delivered.
In the past, investigative journalist Masumi Fukuda has on several occasions mentioned the abduction and confinement perpetrated against members of the Family Federation, resulting in over 4,300 victims of faith-breaking. She elaborates how deprogrammers (faith-breakers) or pastors affiliated with mainstream Christian churches, perceiving the Unification Church as heretical, have incited close relatives of believers to kidnap them. Those adherents are then forcibly detained at secure locations, such as locked apartments, where escape is impossible.
Almost every day, deprogrammers and hostile pastors would visit those abducted believers, subjecting them to verbal abuse and sometimes physical violence. The professional faith-breakers and preachers would persistently criticize the teachings of the Unification Church and highlight scandals attributed to the founder until the believers express a desire to renounce their faith. As a result, around 70% of the 4,300 kidnapped members reportedly gave up their faith.
Some members, wishing to put an end to the forcible detention, feigned to have quit their beliefs. To expose such deceit, the deprogrammers would take various measures: de-converted believers are required to draft apostasy letters, consume alcohol (against the guidelines of the Unification Church), disclose addresses of other members (to target them for kidnapping), and visit other adherents in forcible detention in order to persuade them to abandon their faith.
On top of that, those de-converted believers are coerced into filing lawsuits, such as seeking an annulment of marriages conducted in Unification Church‘s Blessing Ceremonies (collective weddings) and insisting the return of donations given to the church. Fearing that they might be abducted and forcibly detained again if they don’t do as they are told to by the faith-breakers and hostile lawyers, the de-converted adherents end up having no choice but to comply.
In court, those forcibly de-converted believers paint a black picture of the Family Federation, as instructed by hostile lawyers and deprogrammers. In addition, the professional faith-breakers and pastors teaming up with them direct the coerced believers to present themselves in media as “ordinary” former members who simply wish to denounce the religious organization. Witnessing this, parents of other members become worried and turn to deprogrammers for help, resulting in further instances of abduction and forcible detention, thus creating a vicious cycle.
If MEXT (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) base its “right to question” the Family Federation on assertions from numerous abducted and deprogrammed plaintiffs in the 22 above-mentioned cases, and if it leads to a verdict that the church‘s malicious nature is evident and warrants dissolution, that would be exceedingly unjust. It would then be most proper for the Family Federation to resolutely resist the request for a dissolution order.
Masumi Fukuda writes that to her it seems like MEXT never had the intention of facilitating a fair and impartial trial, as evidenced by its collaboration with National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (NNLASS), an anti-religious group deeply antagonistic towards the Unification Church. MEXT deliberately leaned on NNLASS lawyers for collecting information and carrying out investigations. Indeed, the powerful impact of NNLASS on MEXT becomes apparent in Government Minister Masahito Moriyama’s comments during a press conference, “The church […] continuously restricted the free decision-making of numerous believers over an extended period, impeded normal judgment, and caused significant damage by inducing them to make large donations and purchase goods, disrupting the peace of their lives.”
Such a claim echoes the accusations made by NNLASS. Without examination, the absurd nature of Moriyama’s claims might not be perceived. It actually suggests that the Family Federation for a long time extensively has employed “brainwashing” on its members, turning them into obedient robots used by the church. The concept of brainwashing is of course discredited in the West and abandoned since a long time. It is considered pseudo-scientific.
If the Minister Moriyama of MEXT had in earnest read such a preposterous statement, he ought to have asked some questions. Investigative journalist Fukuda asks, “Could it be that officials at MEXT have been “brainwashed,” or mind controlled, by the NNLASS?”
To be continued…
Featured image above: Masumi Fukuda in April 2023. Photo: FOREF