An organization related to the Unification Church has been behind various pushes from Kumamoto Prefecture for a “family education” law that critics say would allow government interference for the “good of the nation.”

Kumamoto is the prefecture with the most assemblies that have passed and submitted such opinion papers to the Diet calling for a law to support family education.

The legislation was initially proposed to augment the revised Fundamental Law of Education that was passed in 2006 during Shinzo Abe’s first stint as prime minister.

Abe wanted to create a society in which all citizens, including families, would support each other for the good of the nation.

But the plan was shelved following criticism that it would give public authorities too much power in private matters by forcing families to provide home education.

No actual bill has ever been submitted to the Diet.

According to the Research Institute for Local Government, 10 prefectures and six municipalities have adopted ordinances that incorporate provisions of the proposed legislation.

The Unification Church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, has long emphasized the importance of family education.

In Kumamoto, a high-ranking official in an organization affiliated with the Unification Church established a separate group called Kumamoto Pure Forum. The forum’s name often turns up during digging into who has been pushing for the opinion papers at local assemblies.

As of Oct. 7, 34 local assemblies around Japan had submitted opinion papers to the Lower House.

In 2012, Kumamoto became the first prefectural government to approve an ordinance about family education. Seven municipalities in Kumamoto have submitted opinion papers calling for a law.

The Ashikita town assembly approved such a document in June 2020.

Records at the assembly secretariat showed that before the opinion paper was adopted, a conservative member of the assembly served as a liaison for a request to the assembly asking that such an opinion paper be passed. 

Minutes show that a Japanese Communist Party member raised objections because of the danger that a sense of values convenient to the central government would be forced on families in the name of family support.

But a majority of assembly members voted for the opinion paper.

Kumamoto Pure Forum had submitted the request for such an opinion paper.

An official of the assembly secretariat said the request was deemed trustworthy because the registered head of Kumamoto Pure Forum was a former head of the prefectural board of education.

Kumamoto Pure Forum submitted similar requests to four other local assemblies that eventually approved the opinion papers.

The four are Uto, Tamana, Kamiamakusa and Minami-Aso.

Another organization submitted the request to the Aso city assembly. But an executive of the organization who once served as an Aso city assembly member said the secretary-general of Kumamoto Pure Forum asked that the organization submit the request on its behalf.

The Kumamoto Pure Forum secretary-general told the executive, “We want to submit requests to all local assemblies in the prefecture, so I ask for your cooperation.”

The member of the Arao city assembly who submitted the proposed opinion paper said, “I was asked to do so by a member of Kumamoto Pure Forum.”

The request submitted to the Ashikita town assembly contained documents that explained the background to Kumamoto Pure Forum.

Kumamoto prefectural assembly members are listed as directors of the forum, and 22 of the forum members are local assembly members.

The name of the secretary-general can also be found in a document submitted in March 2021 by a political organization to the Kumamoto prefectural election administration commission.

The man was the head of the Kumamoto branch of the International Federation for Victory over Communism, an organization closely linked with the Unification Church.

In response to email questions from The Asahi Shimbun, the man explained that he established Kumamoto Pure Forum in 2016 along with the former head of the prefectural board of education.

While it was initially a separate organization, someone from the local branch of the International Federation for Victory over Communism learned about Kumamoto Pure Forum’s activities, and the man was recruited to join the local branch. But he said he was not active in that branch.

The former head of the prefectural board of education said he left the submittal of the requests to local assemblies entirely up to the secretary-general. He added that Kumamoto Pure Forum had absolutely no ties to the Unification Church.

An official with the International Federation for Victory over Communism said the family education support legislation was originally a policy idea of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and was not something pushed independently by the federation.

While the organization agrees with the contents of the proposal, it has never asked for such legislation as an organization, the official said.