Japan

By Peter Zoehrer, Executive Director, FOREF Europe — On World Press Freedom Day, we celebrate journalism’s role in holding power to account and amplifying the voices of the vulnerable. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) enshrines freedom of expression as a pillar of democracy. But this freedom is not without consequence. When media outlets stigmatize religious minorities, they don’t just shape narratives—they shape realities.

The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, formerly known as the Church of Unification, was founded in Korea in 1954 by the religious leader Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, but has experienced substantial growth, especially in 1958 after its founding in Japan. Although on November 27, 2020, the Hiroshima High Court convicted five people for kidnapping and imprisoning a married couple with the purpose of de-converting them so as to force them to leave the Unification Church, by implicitly recognizing their inalienable right to their religious faith ...

In a recent article, Professor Massimo Introvigne reported on an alarming increase in incidents of violence perpetrated in Japan against members of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and an equally alarming increase – according to Jehovah's Witnesses of up to 638 percent – of hate crimes and hate speeches.

Paris, June 15, 2024 — A delegation from the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) Japan has traveled to France to highlight the ongoing crisis of religious freedom in Japan.

Documents prove that private anti-cult organizations had a key role in the creation of government documents that caused a surge of hate speech and violence.

by Massimo Introvigne — In June 2023, while peacefully engaging in preaching, a female Jehovah’s Witness in her 70s was assaulted by a 57-year-old man.

by Bitter Winter — The proposed law immediately targets the Unification Church, based on controversial data about “victims” and “damages,” but establishes an unfair general principle with ominous implications for the future.

by Bitter Winter — Twelve NGOs, representing a who’s who of religious liberty advocacy throughout the world, protest the Japanese government’s actions.