Shocking Interview: A female young employee was harassed and fired because of her religion
Originally, published by the Family Federation of Japan on 10th August 2024 on their website.
Prepared by Knut Holdhus
Interviewer: Nice to meet you today. First of all, could you tell me how you came to believe (in the Family Federation)?
Kitayama: I am the second of six siblings and the second daughter. After I was born, my mother was introduced to the Family Federation, so I am considered a second-generation believer. Encouraged by my mother, I started attending worship services for children at the Family Federation from early elementary school. However, after entering high school, I gradually stopped going to church.
About ten years after I stopped going to church, my father suffered a heart attack. It was a very critical situation, but at the church my mother wrote a prayer request for my father (strips of paper with wishes written on it, which are dedicated to heaven).
Suddenly, my father’s condition improved, and he recovered. Eventually, he even returned to work, and the doctors were amazed at his recovery. Witnessing this miraculous recovery, my older and younger sisters, who had also stopped going to church, started attending again. Although I didn’t return to church immediately, it seems my younger sister continued to pray for me.
After various ups and downs, I visited the church again around 2015 after a long absence. By chance, that day happened to be the day when the Holy Wine of forgiveness (for the absolution of sins) was being administered. After receiving the Holy Wine, it felt as if a weight had been lifted from my chest, and I was able to start attending church again.
Interviewer: Thank you very much. By the way, I heard that you got into trouble over something related to your faith and were fired from your job.
Kitayama: Yes, I work in customer service, and about four or five years ago, I was working at a small shop in the Tokyo metropolitan area. I used to get along well with the male owner of the shop, and we had no problems working together. Initially, I felt that the workplace was comfortable to work in.
By the way, to organize my thoughts and feelings, I had been keeping a personal diary for a long time. At one point, I started bringing it to work so I could write in it during breaks, but one day, I accidentally left it at the shop. The owner found and read the diary, which included some of my complaints about the workplace. Right after that, I received a long text message from the owner about what I had written. That is when all kinds of trouble started.
The diary also contained a lot of content related to my faith, so the owner found out that I was a member of the Family Federation. After that, through a messaging app the owner started sending me messages that were essentially a form of harassment.
Interviewer: What kind of messages did he send you?
Kitayama: For example, I received long messages about how my work attitude was bad, or that I shouldn’t be in this store, or content that encouraged me to quit my job. I felt that the owner was trying to make me leave, so I decided that I absolutely wouldn’t cave in and kept going to work, determined not to quit.
The owner never said anything (bad) directly to me; instead, I would always receive messages outside of working hours. It was tough, especially when such phone notifications wouldn’t stop coming. At one point, I found out that the owner had told a mutual acquaintance, Ms. X (a customer of the store), “You should stop contacting [my real name], since she’s a member of the Unification Church.” Ms. X’s husband is a Buddhist monk, and Ms. X herself is religious, so she understood me having faith in my religion. However, when I heard from her that the owner repeatedly brought up my religion, I realized that the owner wanted to make me quit because of my faith.
After reading my personal diary, the owner continued to send me text messages for about a month. During that time, we continued to see each other at the store as usual. I also went to my trade union, but eventually, I was fired for what I was told were company reasons.
Interviewer: Did the events at your previous workplace have any lasting impact?
Kitayama: I was fired from that job just before 2022, but even after the assassination of former Prime Minister Abe, I received messages from two or three mutual acquaintances (customers of the store) asking, “The owner was talking about the Unification Church – what’s going on?” I had to explain the situation to each of them individually. Fortunately, it didn’t damage my relationships with these acquaintances, but it was still stressful knowing that the owner was continuing to talk about my faith to others.
Interviewer: Lastly, please tell us how you feel now.
Kitayama: When I look back at the messages the owner sent me, I still feel upset, remembering those times. I’m quite a strong-willed person, and I continued working at a new job after that trouble. But I think there are many people who, when faced with similar problems, hesitate to talk to someone or endure it without speaking up. I’m concerned that even if they’re not fired like I was, more people are being bullied at work or school because of their faith.
Interviewer: Thank you very much for today!
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Featured image above: Akari Kitayama (pseudonym), a woman in her 30s from the Tokyo metropolitan area. Photo: FFWPU