10/07/2025 15:15
- 17:30
HALL: Seminar Room 07
Proponent:
Introvigne M.
Chair:
Huang C.
Speaker:
Introvigne M.,
Nemes M.,
Soryte R.,
Zoehrer P.
On 30 April 2024, four United Nations Special Rapporteurs sent an official letter to the Japanese Government. Those four Special Rapporteurs were those mandated by the UN for freedom of religion or beliefs, for freedom of education, freedom of association, and freedom of expression. They were alerted by a report by the Jehovah's Witnesses on an alarming situation in Japan. They then wrote an official letter to Japan's Prime Minister and expressed their "serious concern" about what appeared to be "an emerging pattern of attacks and threats" against religious minorities in Japan, through the publication of "Q&A on Responses to Child Abuse Related to Religious Belief. " What had happened in Japan was that a campaign presenting second-generation members of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Unification Church as "victims" of "religious child abuse" and "brainwashing" through a restrictive and inappropriate education had led to regulations severely restricting the rights of parents to raise their children in conservative religious organizations. While the case of Japan is extreme, it is not unique. A global campaign revives old anti-cult stereotypes, including "brainwashing," and presents second-generation members of new religious movements as "victims" in needs of being "rescued." Apostate ex-second-generation-members provide well-publicized testimonies. However, media and governments rarely seek the opinion of the majority of second-generation members of minority religions and new religious movements, who either remain in the organizations or quietly leave them without expressing any special grievances.