TAG / JAPAN
RESULTS
HUMAN RIGHTS
Investigation Exposes How a False Media Narrative Cost a Religion Its Legal Status in Japan
New research uncovers how media hysteria and falsehoods led to the denial of religious rights for hundreds of thousands of believers across Japan.
HUMAN RIGHTS
How Japan’s Courts Turned a Mother’s Faith into a Crime
A case thrown out by two lower courts was resurrected under a new legal standard that strips minority believers of basic rights.
DRUGS
Etomidate Crackdown Widens After Wave of Arrests and Rising Medical Emergencies
Bans on the anesthetic-turned-street-drug come amid seizures, hospitalizations and a trafficking pipeline stretching from India to Singapore to Okinawa.
HUMAN RIGHTS
UN Experts Warn Japan’s School Pamphlets Threaten Religious Minorities
Government-issued “child abuse” pamphlets conflate faith with harm, targeting minority religions and worsening an already perilous environment for religious freedom in Japan.
SCIENTOLOGISTS
Scientology Turned His Life Around—Now Akio Kitaura Leads Japan’s No. 1 Gourmet Burger Brand
A Scientology Network Meet a Scientologist episode reveals how Kitaura built a first-place brand in a nation with 9,000 burger restaurants.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Japanese Court Defies Its Own Constitution, Orders Dissolution of Unification Church
A Tokyo court’s ruling to dissolve the Unification Church has ignited a global debate over religious freedom. Critics warn it sets a dangerous precedent for all faiths.
HATE
Religious Leaders, Scholars and Activists Deplore Japan’s Trashing of Freedom of Religion
Japan’s frenzied headlong pursuit toward the dissolution of the Unification Church threatens the survival of religions everywhere, with repressive new laws that impact all faiths.
HUMAN RIGHTS
USCIRF Releases Report on Worldwide Oppression of Jehovah’s Witnesses
From the deprivation of rights to imprisonment, heavy fines, harassment, unemployment, disruption of religious services, forced labor and torture, Jehovah’s Witnesses too often pay a terrible price for their peaceful beliefs.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Persecution of the Unification Church in Japan Is an Attack on All Religious Freedom
Spurred by a religious “deprogrammer”—code word for bigoted brainwasher—Japan’s attacks make millions wonder: Why does the government have any role in religion at all?
HATE
The Brutal Consequences of Antireligious Hate
The assassination of Shinzo Abe was the work of a disturbed man inflamed by antireligious hate.
