• Kishida Cabinet approves bill banning use of fear to solicit donations
    2023-02-08

    Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet approved a new bill Thursday that will ban organizations from using fear to solicit donations, including the use of “spiritual inspiration” as way to push followers into giving funds.

  • "Second-Generation Followers" Form Group to Solve Their Problems
    2023-02-08

    Children of followers of controversial religious groups including the Unification Church said Wednesday they have set up their own group to try to resolve problems they face.

  • Relief law passes, but victims say it doesn’t go nearly far enough
    2023-02-08

    Families and legal experts gave a mixed assessment to a new law aimed at providing relief to the kin of followers of religious organizations and other groups who suffered severe financial hardship as a result of unscrupulous fundraising practices.

  • New Japan law aims at Unification Church fundraising abuses
    2023-02-08

    Japan’s parliament on Saturday enacted a law to restrict malicious donation solicitations by religious and other groups, which mainly targetsthe Unification Church,whose fundraising tactics and cozy ties with the governing party caused public outrage.

  • Japan passes funds law amid 'cult-like' church controversy
    2023-02-08

    Japan's parliament on Saturday approved a law that bans religious and other organizations from maliciously soliciting donations after a brainwashing controversy surrounding the Unification Church.

  • Attorney Sues Estate of Alleged Cult Leader for Decades of Forced Labor
    2023-02-08

    A corporate litigation lawyer is suing the estate of an alleged cult leader and her enforcers, claiming he was the victim of a decades-long scheme in which he was manipulated and terrorized into performing thousands of hours of unpaid labor.

  • Americans' views on 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems
    2023-02-08

    A recent YouGov poll explores Americans' attitudes toward 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems. Belief systems that encompass the largest shares of Americans — including Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism — are among the ones the most Americans view favorably. Viewed leas...

  • Members of QAnon-affiliated cult in Japan guilty of trespass at COVID vaccine sites
    2023-02-08

    A Tokyo court has given a guilty verdict to five members of a group claiming to be the Japanese arm of U.S. conspiracy cult QAnon, for forcing their way into local coronavirus vaccination sites earlier this year.

  • Japan May Question Unification Church for 3rd Time
    2023-02-08

    Japanese culture minister Keiko Nagaoka said Friday that the government may exercise its right to demand reports from and put questions to the controversial religious group known as the Unification Church for a third time.

  • Letter: Opinion on IRS was misinformed
    2023-02-08

    The editorial by Preston Brashers in the Dec. 28, 2022, Post Bulletin contains nothing but lies about taxes and the IRS. These lies are being pushed by the worst of the right-wing media.

  • Mainichi Shimbun team wins Japan journalism award for Unification Church coverage
    2023-02-08

    A Mainichi Shimbun team covering the controversial Unification Church and its efforts to connect with the Japanese political circle based on 615-volume records of remarks by the group's founder Sun Myung Moon has won the journalism grand prize by the Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers' Union.

  • Japan to Impose Penalties in Donation Victim Relief Law from April
    2023-02-08

    Tokyo, Jan. 31 (Jiji Press)--Japanese consumer affairs minister Taro Kono said Tuesday that he has instructed the Consumer Affairs Agency to work to start imposing penalties stipulated in the donation victim relief law from April 1.

  • Former victim who escaped jungle paedophile cult shares details of monstrous abuse
    2023-02-08

    Yisrael Amir, now 22, was just 12 years old when his father ripped him away from his home in Israel with the promises of a heavenly life in Guatemala, but he instead arrived at a cult compound where leaders have been accused of raping children.

  • To save my mother, I go head-to-head fighting against “Almighty God”
    2023-02-02

    At noon the next day, my mother went visit the woman who preached “Almighty God” to her, and I tagged along. I warned her not to spread any cult fallacy to my mother anymore.

  • How a yoga studio turned into a murderous doomsday cult that drank blood
    2023-02-01

    The terrifying new documentary “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World,” which premiered Friday night at the Sundance Film Festival, traces the innocent origins and eventual deadly repercussions of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan.