Why America cannot fully understand "Japan's position" on the kidnapping issue

Tim Elder and Akihiko Reizei
May 27, 2012

Thank you, In Jin Nim.

A U.S.-based Japanese journalist confirms in a column for Newsweek Japan that "considerable lobbying" by a certain "religious organization that has a short history and is aggressive in its evangelism activities" has resulted in Japan feeling the heat on the abduction and forced conversion issue.

Partial translation of column by Akihiko Reizei:

Title: Why America cannot fully understand "Japan's position" on the kidnapping issue

It has been reported... that when members of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State [Kurt] Campbell, Mr. Campbell referred to the abduction of children by Japanese parents following the breakdown in international marriages, and said that he wanted [Japan] to consider the issue of parental rights in parallel with the North Korea issue.

[Summarizing two paragraphs: The State Department later issued a statement saying it would handle the two issues separately, but the fact that this statement came from the assistant secretary of state indicates where the real thinking of America lies.]

...

In a similar case, there is an issue of religion. There is often mention in Japan of parents working desperately to "take back" or "deprogram" children who have joined a religious organization that has a short history and is aggressive in its evangelism activities. This, too, is something that America finds hard to understand. In particular, when the child is 18 years or older, Americans are completely unable to sympathize with parents initiating actions to "take back" their children in violation of the individual's right to religious faith.

There appears to have been a considerable amount of lobbying by the religious organization, but Japan is on the State Department's watch list for the reasons that "parental actions that violate the religious freedom of adult children are not dealt with and the society is not aggressive in securing religious freedom." This, too, is a strange matter.

In any case, I don't think America's thinking is likely to change. In diplomacy, I think we have no choice other than to work on the basis of such differences in values and culture and see how we can form a common front.

www.newsweekjapan.jp/reizei/2012/05/post-430.php