A Dangerous Precedent: Japan’s Assault on
Religious Freedom and Its Global Fallout

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Peter Zoehrer, Journalist and Executive Director of FOREF Europe, delivered this address at the CESNUR 25 Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, during the Opening Plenary on Tuesday, 18 November 2025.
The session brought together more than 80 scholars, FoRB specialists, and journalists from across the globe.

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Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed colleagues, and friends,
Thank you for the honour of speaking at this opening plenary. It is a great privilege to join you here in Cape Town among such distinguished scholars, human-rights advocates and journalists.

My name is Peter Zoehrer, and I speak today both as a journalist and as Executive Director of FOREF Europe, a Vienna-based human-rights NGO committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) as a foundational civil right.

Let me begin with two heartfelt acknowledgements: First, to Dr Imboni Samuel Radebe for his visionary step in bringing CESNUR 25 to Cape Town; and second, to Dr Massimo Introvigne and the entire CESNUR team for organising this outstanding conference. It is through such collaboration and foresight that we gather here today.

What I present to you is more than the account of one organisation in one country. It is a global signal. We are witnessing in Japan the emergence of what may become a blueprint for religious suppression.

The unfolding events involving the organisation commonly called the Unification Church — officially the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) — have implications far beyond Tokyo’s courtrooms and the Japanese mainland. What happens in Japan may well reverberate around the world.

The Abe Assassination and the “Court of Public Opinion”

The story begins with a tragic event on 8 July 2022, when former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by Tetsuya Yamagami, who publicly blamed the Church for his mother’s financial distress tied to past donations. Rather than focusing solely on this as the act of a disturbed individual, the Japanese media swiftly launched what can fairly be described as a coordinated moral panic.

The Church became the defendant in a “court of public opinion” — not a courtroom of law. Within days, countless news articles and broadcasts cast the Church as a societal menace: threatening family life, undermining finances, disrupting national politics. By May 2025, approximately 30 % of registered religious corporations in Japan reported that they “felt uneasy” about their status in the wake of heightened scrutiny and public anxiety. The media-law-civil-complaint complex created what one might call a “media firewall” — a closed loop in which dissenting voices from scholars, religious-liberty experts, religious-organisation members and international bodies were systematically excluded from the dominant narrative. Public opinion became heavily shaped — and not always by balanced information.

The Dissolution Order: Criminalising Belief Without Conviction

Less than a year later, in October 2023, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) formally requested the Tokyo District Court to dissolve the Church’s legal status as a religious corporation. Then, on 25 March 2025, the Tokyo District Court issued the dissolution order: it revoked the organisation’s religious-corporation status, revoked its tax-exempt privileges, and ordered liquidation of its assets.

Yet crucially: this was not the result of a criminal conviction of the organisation. Instead, it relied on administrative/civil-law allegations of “social detriment” — including donations deemed coercive, purchases of expensive goods, alleged psychological pressure — without the procedural safeguards normally operative in criminal justice. This move undermines Japan’s obligations under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protects belief and the freedom to manifest religion through teaching, worship, organisation and practice.

And perhaps most importantly: the organisation formally filed an appeal on 7 April 2025 with the Tokyo High Court. Hearings are expected to conclude in December 2025 or later. In other words: the case is still pending. The precedent is still being contested. Without due process, we risk a model in which belief and association become vulnerable to dissolution — not because of proven wrongdoing, but because of social stigma, media pressure and ambiguous legal standards.

Silencing the World: Deaf Ears to Global Appeals

This is not simply a Japanese domestic issue. A broad coalition of academics, constitutional scholars, FoRB experts, former UN officials and civil-society networks have formally and publicly appealed to Japan to pause and reconsider its path. These appeals have taken the form of open letters, legal analyses, human-rights briefs and international pressure. Yet Tokyo has largely remained unmoved.

On 1 October 2025, four United Nations Special Rapporteurs issued a joint statement from Geneva expressing “serious concern over Japan’s continued stigmatization of religious minorities.”

The experts are: Nazila Ghanea – Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Nicolas Levrat – Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Gina Romero – Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association; and Farida Shaheed – Special Rapporteur on the right to education. (OHCHR) Their concerns included discriminatory school-materials that portray religion as potential child-abuse, the misuse of the “public welfare” doctrine to justify broad restrictions, and the risk that religious minorities are penalised under vague legal standards. Japan was urged to revise its Q&A Guidelines, to cooperate fully with UN mechanisms, and to restore institutional equality for religious organisations under the law. (Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan)

When a democracy ignores international counsel, suppresses domestic dissent, and moves to dissolve a faith-organisation under administrative pretexts, we must ask: which model of democracy is in play?

Real-World Consequences: The Human Cost

Law and policy matter — but they are not just abstract; they affect real people. In Japan, following the dissolution request and the campaign against the Church, members report:

• Bullying, exclusion and stigma in schools and universities due to religious affiliation.
• Frozen bank accounts, denial of rental services (cars, apartments, event-spaces) once affiliation is disclosed.
• Job interviews cancelled, job offers rescinded when the affiliation became known.
• Social ostracism, exclusion from inter-faith networks or public-forum engagement.
• In some cases, depression and even suicide among individuals feeling isolated, stigmatised and abandoned. (bitterwinter.org)

Now let us widen the lens to include South Korea.
On 22 September 2025, the leader of the global unification movement, Dr Hak Ja Han — age 82 — was reportedly arrested by South-Korean investigators in a case involving alleged bribery tied to the wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol and senior lawmakers. What is striking is that the arrest came while she was medically vulnerable: she had recently undergone heart surgery in early September 2025 and is reported to suffer from impaired eyesight and diabetes. Her detention in the context of fragile health is not a mere legal act — it is a warning. It signals that leadership of a minority faith can be targeted, not just membership. When affiliation or leadership becomes a liability, freedom is at risk.

CCP Endorsement: A Chilling Signal

The situation becomes even more worrying when authoritarian regimes applaud these pseudo-democratic actions. The Chinese-Communist-Party-linked tabloid Global Times hailed Japan’s dissolution of the Church as a “positive example” and called on other nations to follow suit.

The irony is profound. The same regime is actively engaged in the mass internment of Uyghur Muslims, suppression of underground churches, banning the Falun Gong movement and controlling religious life in Tibet and elsewhere. That a dictatorship would cheer a democratic country’s suppression of a religious organisation should send alarm throughout all free societies. If authoritarian regimes applaud such moves, then we must recognize we may be sliding not into overt repression, but into a new form of state-approved religion or state-controlled belief.

The Copy-cat Effect: From Asia to Africa and Europe

We must be vigilant — because the implications extend far beyond Japan. We are already seeing the early signs of a “copy-cat effect”: bureaucratic mechanisms replacing overt repression; regulation replacing theology; faith-communities quietly edged out. Here are just a few of numerous examples:

Consider:

• In Rwanda: during field inspections in July–August 2024, approximately 7,700 churches were reportedly closed for failure to meet registration, leadership-qualification or safety standards. (This refers to widely reported crackdowns on churches.)
• In South Africa: On 5 October 2025, the CRL Rights Commission announced the formation of a “Section 22 Committee” to oversee religious groups — raising concerns about mandatory registration, licensing of pastors, and state oversight of religious assembly.
• In Europe: Agencies such as France’s MIVILUDES and networks like FECRIS have reportedly consulted Japanese officials about applying similar regulatory strategies to minority religions.

This is not religious reform. This is a contagion of soft totalitarianism, where religion is not openly banned, but quietly un-enabled through regulation and removal of legal recognition.

Why This Matters for All of Us

Let me emphasise: this is not simply a theological debate; it is not just about one group in one country. It is about a principle. If a government can dissolve a registered religious organisation — not because of crime, but because of public stigma, media pressure, and unproven allegations — then any minority is vulnerable.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” — Article 18

If this right applies only to the popular, the traditional, or the politically approved, then it applies to no one.

When the state leans on “public welfare,” “social harmony,” or “protection from exploitation” to deregister or dissolve belief-organisations, the slippery slope begins. First one group is targeted; then the next; then the next.

Freedom of religion is the litmus test of democracy. As Mahatma Gandhi stated: How a country treats its minorities — not its majority — is the true measure of its democratic credibility.

A Call to Moral & Academic Leadership

Here, at this plenary session on Day One, we are not only attendees — we are guardians of conscience, scholarship and freedom. So I call upon you:

• Academics: Engage seriously with the Japanese narrative. Challenge it with facts, contexts, comparative global perspectives.
• Journalists: Break the media firewall. Restore balance, give voice to second-generation believers, to those whose stories are hidden.
• Governments, NGOs, international bodies: Speak clearly. Speak courageously. Do not wait for the precedent to be entrenched. Act now — before this becomes the accepted norm.

If there was ever a moment for the global community of scholars, activists, journalists and defenders of religious liberty to mobilise — that moment is now. What happens in Tokyo today may reverberate in Kigali tomorrow, in Johannesburg next year, in Paris before too long. Because the dissolution of the Church in Japan — and the detention of its senior leadership in Korea — is not just a national legal action; it is a global precedent. If left unchallenged, it may serve as a model for religious repression globally.

Concluding Appeal

So let us protect freedom — before it’s too late.

May we stand together — across borders, across faiths and beliefs, across academic disciplines — to affirm that every person has the right to believe, to associate, to practise faith, and to organise community — without fear, without interference, simply because of their conscience.

Thank you for your attention.

 

 

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Footnotes / Sources

1. “Tokyo court orders dissolution of ‘Moonies’ Unification church,” The Guardian, 25 March 2025.
2. “Court in Japan orders dissolution of Unification Church,” PBS / Newshour. (PBS)
3. “Unification Church appeals stripping of religious-corporation status,” Japan Times, 7 April 2025. (Japan Times)
4. “Japan: UN experts concerned by continued stigmatisation of religious minorities,” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 1 October 2025. (OHCHR)
5. Bitter Winter, “Unification Church Dissolution Trial: Finally, Two Sincere Voices Are Allowed to Speak,” 24 October 2025. (bitterwinter.org)
6. FOREF Europe, “Japan: The Dissolution of the Family Federation Is ‘Arbitrary’,” 16 October 2025. (Foref Europe)
7. EastAsiaForum, “The Unification Church dissolution and Japan’s evolving religious governance,” 3 May 2025. (East Asia Forum)
8. Bitter Winter, “The United Nations Condemns Japan’s Discrimination Against Religious Minorities,” 3 October 2025. (bitterwinter.org)

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RELATED LINKS:

CESNUR 25 in Cape Town once again demonstrated that freedom of religion or belief remains under severe pressure worldwide. The following selected articles offer essential insights into the most important cases, scholarly contributions, and human rights concerns addressed at the conference.

1. CESNUR 2025 — (Summary Report)
   Charting A Global Future For Religious Pluralism – Uniting History, Indigenous Faiths And New Spiritual Movements On The Shores Of Cape Town, South Africa
2. African Indigenous Spirituality, The Revelation Spiritual Home, and Dr. Radebe at CESNUR 25 (Bitter Winter) A major in-depth article on Dr. Imboni Samuel Radebe’s presentation and spiritual leadership, and the role of The Revelation Spiritual Home in the revival of African Indigenous Spirituality at CESNUR 25.

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Peter Zoehrer* is a journalist and the Executive Director of FOREF Europe (Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe), an independent Vienna-based NGO advocating for religious liberty, pluralism, and the protection of conscience across Europe and beyond.

 

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