Empowering the Heavenly Parent Holy Community
... voicing support could lead to accusations of being “cut from the same cloth”, which deters open action. This cautious approach reflects the stance of the majority within Japan’s religious community, where concern for religious…
... Why is it that violations of freedom of religion, such as the reinterpretation of the Religious Corporations Act overnight by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (as of October 2022), can occur so readily in a…
... a media onslaught against the former Unification Church, led by the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (Zenkoku-benren), began.” This led to many cases of believers being discriminated against, subjected to domestic violence,…
NNLASS included lawyers such as Masaki Gouro (郷路征記), who led a defense team of 122 attorneys to oppose a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Tadashi Yoshimura (吉村正). Yoshimura, a Kyoto University graduate and…
... they exploited that trust to incite parents and relatives into committing crimes of abduction and confinement, coercing children to renounce their faith in a manner that violated their human rights and tore apart family…
... everyone present firmly refused, unanimously saying, “Absolutely not!” Sensing the abnormal atmosphere, Koide tried to leave but was immediately subdued. “At that moment, the male relatives jumped on me, carried me out of the…
... Scholars who claim that new religious movements brainwash their followers are using the media to spread the terms ‘brainwashing’ and ‘mind control’, but this is merely a political argument designed to attack new religious…
... Both OSCE and UN Representatives and Rapporteurs normally are unable to visit totalitarian and non-democratic countries. Almost nobody refuses the visits explicitly. The strategy used by those who have something to hide is called…
... the mass media, driven by ideologies or profit motives, often stimulate public sentiments with biased or fabricated information. He noted, “This frequently gives rise to negative sentiments, which, in turn, create waves of public…
... This hesitation is particularly notable in light of recent international criticism of Japan’s treatment of religious minorities, especially the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Unification Church (now known as the Family Federation for World Peace…