Evil media-driven religious cleansing: How public opinion was turned against the large faith minority, the Family Federation
On September 26, 2025, Norishige Kondo, Legal Affairs Director of the Family Federation in Japan, delivered a message at a civil society side event held in Geneva. The event was organized by the NGO Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in conjunction with the 60th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC60). The theme of the side event was “Japan and Human Rights – Religious Cleansing in Japan: Eradication of an Entire Faith Community.”
Prepared by Knut Holdhus
My topic today is “The Danger of Religious Eradication Based on Public Opinion Manipulation”.
The official name of our church is Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. However, I think you are familiar with the former name the Unification Church. So in my presentation, I will use the abbreviation of the former name: “UC”. [See editor’s note 1 below]
On 8th July 2022, former Prime Minister Abe was assassinated. The suspect claimed his motive was his mother’s donations to the UC two decades earlier, which had “led to the collapse of his family.” He also resented Abe for sending a video message to UPF, an affiliated organization of the UC.
But can such an excuse for murder really be accepted?
Nevertheless, an anti-UC lawyers network immediately took advantage of this incident to launch attacks on the UC.
Let me explain the basic stance of the major media in Japan. Japan’s major media outlets are in general left-leaning. They tend to be hostile to conservative politicians such as former Prime Minister Abe. In fact, just as the mainstream media in the United States strongly opposed President Trump, the Japanese major media consistently opposed Prime Minister Abe.
Minority religions also became convenient targets for such attacks since criticizing “cults” was a way to boost rankings.
Because the UC and its affiliated organizations took an anti-communist stance and actively campaigned for the enactment of an anti-espionage law, the media were particularly eager to criticize the UC.
Knowing the tendencies of the media, the anti-UC lawyers’ network exploited the Abe incident to attack the UC, creating a false impression of the UC. They categorically labeled the UC as a “great evil” and the cause of Abe’s assassination. They gave the impression that the UC was still causing massive economic damage nationwide. The lawyers’ network spread propaganda that the UC was a “dangerous cult”, that all UC members were victims under “mind control”, and that all donations constituted victimization.
The lawyers’ manipulation of public opinion succeeded, and the Japanese society came to be dominated by the perception that the UC was nothing less than a heinous criminal organization.
In Japan, being an island nation, society places strong pressure on individuals to conform. During World War II, anyone who opposed the war was condemned as unpatriotic.
Likewise, after the Abe incident, members of the Diet who had attended UC-related events or even just sent a simple congratulatory message, were harshly criticized in the media and pressured to issue apologies.
Under this sustained campaign, Prime Minister Kishida finally declared that the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) would cut ties to the UC.
Later, we found a table published on the website of the Consumer Affairs Agency, showing the number of consultations received by consumer centers concerning the UC compared to the total number of consultations.
According to this data, in June 2022, just before the Abe incident, consultations concerning the UC accounted for merely 0.003% of the total.
This bar chart compares the number of consultations handled by consumer centers regarding Japanese major new religious groups, including the UC.
Our lawyer recently researched it and according to it, in 2021, the year before the Abe assassination incident, the number of consultations concerning the UC was 27, whereas Japan’s largest new religious group accounted for 67 cases, more than twice as many as the UC. The UC was only third or fourth among them.
Later, a periodical [Consumer Law News] was found in which a major lawyer of the anti-UC network stated that the number of consultations related to the UC had declined. He said they were struggling, being overwhelmed with consultations from small unfamiliar groups rather than UC-related consultations.
The fact that only the UC became the target of attacks can be explained by nothing else than political motives.
In principle, when the government finds its decision was wrong, it should correct its course. However, like large objects such as a train, once it begins to move, it cannot stop easily. And the government didn’t stop.
In October 2022, the government abruptly changed its interpretation of the Religious Corporations Act overnight, declaring that even civil torts [civil wrongs causing alleged harm] could constitute grounds for dissolution.
The government enacted new laws and policies:
- a new law to restrict solicitation of donations
- a new law to promote claims against the UC
- a governmental decision on anti-UC instruction in schools.
Finally, on 13th October 2023, the government filed a lawsuit seeking the dissolution of the UC. They even submitted fabricated evidence to the court.
Instead of giving up the lawsuit, in court, the UC exposed the fabrication of evidence.
Normally, the courts should have dismissed the dissolution petition (request).
Instead, it recognized as ground for dissolution – based merely on speculation – that there must be unknown victims, while it recognized that there were few actual civil cases. Thus, they valued false impression over facts.
The manipulation of public opinion also reached local governments. Several local assemblies adopted resolutions declaring the cutting of ties with the UC.
In Fukuoka City, the government decided not to allow UC and its related groups to rent public facilities. As a result, the UC could no longer hold Christmas gatherings and even peaceful marches were considered obstructive.
In Shimane Prefecture, support for volunteer activities by UC members was terminated. In fact, local authorities went as far as to order the removal of flowers planted by children as part of their volunteer work.
In Yamaguchi Prefecture, UC members were refused to eat at a restaurant.
When the UC or its affiliated organizations filed defamation lawsuits to restore their honor, the courts dismissed them all.
One of the abnormal cases was UC member Toru Goto’s case. He had been a victim of deprogramming [See editor’s note 2 below] for 12 years and five months and he sued the deprogrammers. In 2014, during his case, the UN recommended that Japan act against deprogramming [See editor’s note 2 below].
As a result, he ultimately won his case at the Supreme Court in 2015. However, after the Abe assassination case, an anti-UC journalist announced in a TV program that Mr. Goto had simply been a social recluse (hikikomori), which meant that he had won the deprogramming [See editor’s note 2 below] case by a false claim.
Mr. Goto filed a defamation lawsuit. At the first instance, he won, but at the second instance, the court reversed the ruling based on the testimonies of the very defendants of the deprogramming [See editor’s note 2 below] case – the deprogrammers.
It can be said that Japan as a whole is completely dominated by false impressions of the UC. This problem has even influenced actions in a neighboring country. Under the prevailing social climate that “cults” must not be allowed to influence politics, even Mrs. Hak Ja Han, the Co-Founder of the UC, was arrested in South Korea.
Persecuting people who hold a certain faith based solely on manipulated impressions is like the Holocaust.
We sincerely request the protection of our human rights from the international community.
Thank you for your attention.
Featured image above: Norishige Kondo, Legal Affairs Director of the Family Federation in Japan, delivering his message at a civil society side event on 26th September in room 11 in the UN Office at Geneva, Switzerland.
[Editor’s note 1: In Japan, the approval by the authorities for the Unification Church to change its name to Family Federation for World Peace and Unification was given in 2015.]
[Editor’s note 2: 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.]