More than 100 second-generation members and pastors arrived in Tokyo, organised in roughly two weeks

More than 100 members of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification travelled from across the United States to Tokyo to stand with Japanese believers and to defend religious freedom in Japan.

The visit, organised in approximately two weeks, brought American second-generation members and pastors face to face with their Japanese counterparts at a moment when Japan's Family Federation has been stripped of its legal status as a religious corporation.

The centrepiece of the visit was a public talk session held on April 29, 2026, hosted by the Second Generation Society to Protect Believers' Human Rights and livestreamed under the title "Talk Session Between Japanese and American Second Generation and Experts."

The format paired three Japanese second-generation members with three American counterparts on stage for the first time. "We had no time to coordinate. We are meeting face to face for the first time right now," the moderator said as the panel opened.

Kikutani, second-generation pastor for Yamanashi prefecture, opened the Japanese side by describing the immediate impact of the court order. He said liquidators had entered church premises with no advance warning.

Liquidators suddenly came in and our churches were closed all at once, with no time even to grieve the loss.

Despite the closures, Kikutani reported that the number of members actively participating in his Yamanashi community has tripled since the dissolution proceedings began. He attributed the resilience to the pastoral leadership of Reverend Hori Masaichi, the organization's Japan president, and to mutual support among local congregations.

Today, with all of you here, let us unite with True Mother (Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon) and create a miracle.

The American members opened the next round with a direct question: how were Japanese members continuing to practice their faith and hold on to hope?

Kurahashi Sayaka, a 29-year-old second-generation member who works while raising a child, described life without church buildings to gather in.

The dissolution of the Family Federation is a fact, and despair is despair. It is hard, and we cannot easily see each other, which is lonely. But our relationship with God has not changed, and the community we have built has not changed.

Members now hold regional and outdoor worship in place of closed church facilities, she said, and the vertical relationship with God and horizontal bonds of community remain the priorities her generation is determined to preserve.

The moderator, Kojima, who co-produces a daily YouTube program with Kurahashi, picked up the thread. "Watching our parents not waver and not fall, even as the church is being dissolved, made us want to protect what they built," she said.

Because of this incident, the second generation in Japan thought very deeply and seriously about why we have faith and why we believe in God.

Naokimi, regional director of the North-Western United States, said the impulse behind the trip was widely shared among American congregations. Born in Tokyo and raised in the United States from age two, he said roughly half of American Family Federation members have Japanese family backgrounds.

However many times I think about what has happened, I cannot wrap my head around it. From an American perspective it is unthinkable. Under President Demian Dunkley's leadership, American members came here genuinely wanting to support Japan.

He described an American Family Federation made up of approximately 76 communities, ranging from groups of around ten to congregations of roughly 500.

Naokimi also described how the church's standing in the United States is generationally split. "It is easy to say I am a believer in God. It is more difficult to say I am a member of the Unification Church, because it depends on the generation," he said.

Younger Americans are largely unfamiliar with the church, while older Americans retain associations from controversies decades earlier.

Kikuchi Kazuhide, 41, who transferred from a Japan leadership post last year to serve as vice regional director under Naokimi, said the most striking difference in American congregations was the energy of Sunday worship.

In America, the whole body praises God. Every week when the Sunday service ends, you feel genuinely happy.

He shared an episode that surprised him about the social respect afforded to clergy in the United States. Stopped at U.S. immigration shortly after his transfer and unable to follow the officer's questions in English, he said with confidence, "I am a pastor." The officer waved him through. "It really is a trusted, respected profession," he said.

The moderator drew the contrast: "In Japan right now, saying you are a pastor would have the opposite effect."

The exchange highlighted what speakers described as the underlying issue: the gap between the United States, where religious diversity is built into civic life, and contemporary Japan, where public expression of faith โ€” particularly minority faith โ€” has become increasingly fraught.

Jinil Fleischman, regional director for nine southern states based in Dallas, Texas, said the culture that made the trip possible extended well beyond the church.

There is a wonderful philanthropic culture across America, not only within our faith. Many Christians feel that if their wealth grows, they want to give more to their church and society. People feel that by giving, they are able to bless others.

Americans give freely in time as well as money to causes they find meaningful, he said, and that culture is what allowed the delegation to assemble at speed.

The full cost of the visit was raised through member donations gathered in roughly two weeks.

The moderator addressed the significance of the visit's public visibility.

Japanese television has consistently depicted second-generation members as reluctant participants coerced into attending services and donating money. The arrival of more than 100 American second-generation members on short notice directly contradicted that frame.

"Other religious groups have never seen anything like this, with people flying in from another country to stand with a community," Kurahashi added.

For the Japanese panelists, the lasting significance of the visit lies in what it offers Japan's wider religious freedom landscape. The presence of foreign believers willing to fly in and publicly stand with a community currently being dismantled by Japanese courts demonstrates that the Family Federation is not the isolated group depicted in domestic broadcast media, but part of a transnational community of conscience.

I believe this event will change the image of the Family Federation that ordinary Japanese hold by 180 degrees.

Speakers said they hoped that shift in public perception would, over time, expand the space in which faith โ€” including minority faith โ€” can be practiced openly and without fear in Japan.

Talk Session Between Japanese and American Second Generation and Experts Full Video : https://www.youtube.com/live/YgmIoCEpPSk?si=_2ATENpzL8ln5Dkj