Members of religious minorities suffer vandal attacks on their cars and homes and harassment at work
Tokyo, 9th August 2024 – Published as the 18th article in a series in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article
Members get graffiti sprayed on their cars and windows broken in their homes
by the Religious Freedom Investigative Team of the editorial department of Sekai Nippo
Prepared by Knut Holdhus
In 1992, international mass weddings and “spiritual sales” were widely covered on television talk shows, and critical reports about the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church) were repeatedly broadcast. As a result, believers faced discrimination, prejudice, and sometimes even hostility due to their faith, causing them distress and suffering.
Before the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a woman in her 30s named Eri Shimada (a pseudonym), who currently works in customer service in the Tokyo metropolitan area, experienced harassment from a male manager at her previous job. Shimada had already been uncomfortable with the manager’s excessive physical contact and had written about her frustration in her diary.
One day, she accidentally left her diary at work, and the manager read it. Upon discovering that she was a member of the Family Federation, the manager began harassing her further, using her faith as a pretext. Through social media, he started making new criticisms, such as “You don’t seem motivated,” and “Your work attitude is bad.” He had never mentioned such things before. Shimada recalled, “I heard directly from a female customer I know that the manager had told her, ‘Since she’s a Unification Church member, you should avoid contacting her.’ Apparently, he said the same thing to several other mutual acquaintances.”
Eventually, Shimada quit the job. Reflecting on the harassment she had faced due to her Family Federation faith, she expressed concern, saying, “Honestly, I think there are quite a few cases like mine that haven’t come to light. Believers tend to see endurance as a virtue.”
Amid the media frenzy criticizing the Family Federation following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, several individuals have faced harassment due to their faith. For instance, in October last year, a 60-year-old female believer named Chihiro Kamimura (a pseudonym) from the Chubu region found derogatory words scribbled on the hood of her car parked at her home.
Because the graffiti was written with a permanent marker, it “couldn’t be easily removed.” The incident was reported to the police, and patrols were conducted around her home, but the perpetrator has not been found. The woman said, “Faith is undoubtedly a source of comfort for me. Being vandalized like this has deeply hurt me.”
There have also been cases of windows of the homes of members being broken. Around 12:30 AM on August 12, 2022, Kyoko Sasaki (a pseudonym), who lives in Fukushima Prefecture, heard a loud noise as if something had struck the window next to her front door. Although she was frightened, she went to bed that night. The next morning, she found a hole about 1 cm in diameter in the double-glazed window, which should not have been easy to break.
It is suspected that a slingshot-like device was used, and a police report was filed later, but the perpetrator remains unknown.
Many neighbors knew that the Sasakis were members of the Family Federation, but they had never openly spoken ill of them before.
After that, incidents that seemed like harassment continued, such as the switch-operated light in their parking area being mysteriously turned on, and empty oil cans for agricultural machinery being discarded on their property. Sasaki expressed her fears, saying, “I can’t sleep at night due to the fear that a similar incident might happen again.”
She is still tormented by the anxiety that, in the worst case, an intruder might break into her home.
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Featured image above: A hole in the window glass of a believer’s home in Fukushima Prefecture. Photo: Family Federation