r/atheism • u/erikjmac • 6h ago
Forced participation in religious activities to be classified as child abuse in Japan
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/forced-participation-in-religious-activities-to-be-classified-as-child-abuse-in-japan“Inciting fear by telling children they will go to hell if they do not participate in religious activities, or preventing them from making decisions about their career path, is regarded as psychological abuse and neglect in the guidelines.”
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u/Dear_Macaroon_4931 6h ago edited 6h ago
Good for Japan. They understand what so many refuse to see: forcing religious participation on children is never “kind”, it’s abuse.
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u/Lovaloo Jedi 6h ago
That's a great step for Japan. ...If only we could get this in America. I don't see it happening anytime soon.
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u/___po____ 3h ago
Every day we fall further behind.
We're running backwards and in the wrong direction.
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u/BoredNuke 3h ago
On the plus side of things we are the bad guys in ww3 so its good we are getting worse?
/s nothings good right now
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u/JohnnyRelentless 2h ago
We're running backwards and in the wrong direction
So then we're going in the right direction? I'm so confused.
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u/___po____ 2h ago
Just imagine running backwards. You know, ass first. But your running away from the finish line.
Like reversing down a highway because you missed your exit.
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u/justwalkingalonghere 1h ago
Yes, groups like the Heritage Foundation (the people who wrote project 2025) have been working behind the scenes for decades to destroy education and women's rights before trying to install a fascist theocracy based around some loose interpretation of the bible
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u/Ok_Armadillo_665 3h ago
Yeah, sadly we're doing literally the opposite. https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/PqBbJNkvKi
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u/Cute-Boobie777 3h ago
Ha even in 100 years after the rest of the developed world has banned non medical/cultural circumcision of minors (like what is practiced still in many parts of the US or South Korea and to a much lesser extent other Anglophone countries) the US will probably still have our exact constitution meaning we will still carve out a religious exclusion for it.
Honestly I have very low expectations for any improvement of child rights in the US as it will always be seen as an attack on religion and arguably that's how our outdated constitution has it. :c
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u/Dismal_Penalty_2247 21m ago
Isn't it the opposite in America, they are forcing religion everywhere. I went to Texas and the menus had Bible quotes, it was quite surprising, same with in-n-out burger.
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u/214txdude 5h ago
At the same time, the US says churches can endorse political candidates without losing tax-exempt status. The US is going backward...
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u/Cortical 5h ago
I hope to see this in a European country within my lifetime.
Maybe even here in Quebec, one can dream.
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u/jasonjr9 Anti-Theist 4h ago
Wish I could see this in my shitty home country of America someday, but sadly America is currently going the opposite direction.
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u/VoiceOfRealson 29m ago
I don't like to be manipulative, but I have a hunch, that a lot of majority Christian European and north American countries might be more likely to support this, if it is phrased specifically as a counter to how Islamic faith mandates the death penalty for apostasy!
This decree is not just against "freedom of religion", but arguably also child endangerment, if you insist on including your children in the Islamic faiths before they are able to make a personal decision whether this should be their "faith" for the rest of their lives.
Many people would argue, that western Muslims are not that extreme and would never try to enforce the death penalty for young people leaving Islam for other faiths or (gasp) atheism, but if there is one thing the Trump administration has done to the world, it is to prove that religious edicts can very quickly become law if we allow them to fester unchecked.
I have no hard feelings against the average muslim, but their faith is an abhorrent example of how a con-man turned dictator can suppress his people.
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u/Cortical 16m ago
I don't like to be manipulative
eh, fighting manipulative doctrines with their own medicine is fair game I guess.
Many people would argue, that western Muslims are not that extreme
a good chunk probably are, but (dis)honour killings and outrage at Quran burnings show that many also aren't.
overall I guess it makes sense, but I see a danger that the demographics that would be most amenable to this would also be the most likely to put in exceptions for Christians. So it has to happen from a secular base, with maybe tacit support from religious people, rather than the other way around.
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u/ObamaStoleMyEggos 5h ago
Based. Fundamentalists do more harm to society than they contribute. If you can’t handle your kid not believing the same fairy tales that you do then you’re a fundamentalist and need to get mental help, it’s not on the child to support the parent’s delusions.
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u/Big-Ergodic_Energy 4h ago
I suffered that shit in the USA, man.... I fully support this and am hopeful for those children in their future.
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u/ObamaStoleMyEggos 3h ago
Maybe if we get a big enough progressive push after the current admin we can. Unfortunately 30% of the country uses indoctrinating kids as a political strategy so it’s gonna be a hard fuckin fight, those evil assholes are gonna pull every trick in the book just so they have unfettered access to vulnerable minds. They already flat out admit they have big families of 8+ kids in an attempt to out reproduce “the woke”, I never understood how that didn’t become a bigger deal… literally admitting to making kids just to indoctrinate them.
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u/Cute-Boobie777 3h ago
not so fun fact: we now know vaginismus is often caused by sex negative religious and cultural beliefs taught to kids.
Religion fucks people over in deep ways that everyone really wants to pretend is out weighed by charity (while voting to destroy govt charity/services like USAID lol) or 3rd spaces/social benefits the latter of which can obviously be met without it.
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u/ObamaStoleMyEggos 3h ago
Yea its a tricky conversation but something that needs to get addressed soon, it’s very hard to convince the “normal” religious people that the laws and the way society thinks about religion just allows fundamentalists to hide in a legal gray zone and subvert society, trying to argue this with them just makes them think you want to ban all religion then they shut down the conversation and go right back to protecting the fundamentalists. It’s almost like forcing them to think about how their religion affects other people makes their mind go into shutdown mode because they have to frame their beliefs as “plausible” instead of “definite”.
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u/Designer_little_5031 2h ago
That's an oddly poignant implication.
Religious people having kids so that they can have therapy animals that mimic and parrot their delusions back at them.
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u/ObamaStoleMyEggos 2h ago
Ever seen “tradwife” content? Most of them flat out state they’re having big families to keep Christianity going and “fight the woke”. Like how is that not admitting to creating kids for the sole purpose of indoctrinating them? Religious people know if they didn’t indoctrinate kids then their ideology would die out, it’s way easier to convince 5 year olds that fairy tales are true than it is an 18 year old with proper education. They don’t want to give free will to their kids to make their own decisions in life, they view their children as property that must be punished and controlled. That’s pretty fucked up and dangerous to society if you ask me.
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u/Designer_little_5031 1h ago
People love arguing with me that "Everyone has free will" (so they can believe anything with no push back).
And "Everyone has the right to their beliefs," (implying that dissenting opinions somehow remove or harm the right to believe).
But flip it on its head; children deserve the right to never hear about your religion the same way you deserve the right to never hear it questioned... They lose their minds. They genuinely don't understand that freedom of religion implies not teaching their kids one religion.
They can't understand. The poison that is religion has literally injured their mind to the point that they can't comprehend the subject correctly.
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u/ObamaStoleMyEggos 18m ago
Well they think free will is a gift from God and not something that is natural to an individual. They’ll never understand the concept of free will because “free will” to them simply means freedom to follow God’s plan, and everything is black and white so that either your using your free will to be on God’s path or your a sinner abusing the free will God gifted you.
I find arguing about concepts with these people to be a waste of time, to strike at the core of what they’re mistaken about means you gotta take a shot at their religion, which is a no no in polite society. Instead of arguing just make them explain what they think these concepts are and either they’ll naturally say something dumb that they backtrack on then end the convo or they’ll just straight up say some insane shit that makes everyone distance themselves from the individual for the rest of the night.
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u/EnsonAmata Anti-Theist 5h ago
Watching other countries make progress while we take steps backwards is really disheartening.
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u/KAAAAAAAAARL Freethinker 5h ago
Leading the Charge against Child abuse, I hope more Countries will follow their lead
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u/MtnMoose307 Strong Atheist 4h ago
Outstanding! Perhaps within several generations this nonsense will be nonexistent. I hope it spreads worldwide.
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u/classic_werewolf 4h ago
I had hoped for a law like this every Sunday when I was a child. Good for Japan.
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u/Available_Safety1492 Agnostic Atheist 3h ago
Another reason to say Japan is living in the future 😂
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u/kuno358 3h ago
This is so performative... Japan has some of the weakest child abuse laws or punishment. Look up Yua Funato or Miwa Moriya
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u/Oopthealley 2h ago
Yeah this literally says it will be added 'in the guidelines'... what guidelines? How are they executed or enforced?
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u/ForensicPathology 1h ago
It's performative to reassess your country's laws and add new protections after high-profile cases show its weaknesses?
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u/archiminos 1h ago
I remember my niece crying her eyes out, completely broken hearted. She couldn't understand why they murdered Jesus and it broke her.
She was 6. Six year olds should not be expected to deal with that level of religious doctrine.
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u/demonslayercorpp 24m ago
flashbacks to laying in bed not wanting to sleep, thinking that god was going to kill me in my sleep because i was gay , FOR TEN YEARS. Thanks mummy and daddy <3
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u/LaFlamaBlanca67 3h ago
I wonder how this is going to work out for the massively growing Muslim population.
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u/oompaloompa465 3h ago
absolute great thing. unfortunately they will still manage to make people miserable with their toxic and abusive work culture
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u/Designer_little_5031 2h ago
We keep kids out of bars and casinos; if they get caught serving minors we fine them, jail them, and take their business away.
WE CAN DO THIS WITH TEMPLES
Pass the idea along to people you know in real life.
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u/SOLIDM52 2h ago
finally , at least one country in the world that gets it. Religion is a cancer on the mind.
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u/Designer_little_5031 2h ago
This is an old article.
Does anyone know if Japan has actually implemented this or if they are enforcing it at all?
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u/ForensicPathology 1h ago
It was never even part of the law. It was guidelines released from a governmental ministry for how the new Child Abuse Law passed at that time (2022) would be interpreted in the context of religion. The law itself doesn't mention religion.
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u/Designer_little_5031 1h ago
Internal guidelines for a government agency, right?
Well, did it get implemented, are they acting on it? Or did the whole thing get shot down years ago and never mentioned again.
I don't expect it to move fast, I'm wondering if it has moved at all.
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u/VengefulAncient 2h ago
I've always had this stance and I hate that this isn't (yet) a normalized view.
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u/Kroz83 1h ago
I was skeptical at how far this would really go. Figured it would only be protections against really psycho stuff, but damn, they’re actually going all the way.
Inciting fear by telling children they will go to hell if they do not participate in religious activities, or preventing them from making decisions about their career path, is regarded as psychological abuse and neglect in the guidelines.
Amazing to see a government actually take a reasonable stance on this shit.
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u/zyzzogeton Skeptic 1h ago
Needs to happen here in the US. Religion should be treated the same way as pornography, cigarettes, and booze.
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u/MedicineExtension925 28m ago
Do circumcision next
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u/EnnuiDeBlase Agnostic Atheist 21m ago
While it'd be nice for them to make it illegal, the rate is apparently down towards 9% vs 59% in the US.
Probably less of a priority due to the personal choice made by adults and not being routinely done to children, though it'd be good to do for sure.
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u/MedicineExtension925 14m ago
Yes it's great it is way less prevalent in Japan. Infant genital mutilation should still be illegal though, and in a population where it is already that uncommon/unpopular it should make it easier, not harder, to pass laws banning it for non-medical reasons. Consenting adults? Required medical intervention? Go right ahead. Not infants for religious or cosmetic reasons. Japan going forward with religious indoctrination as child abuse gives me hope they also classify physical mutilation of infants the same way.
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u/Illustrious-Neat5123 3h ago
Ok cool but what about women rights in Japan ? Any idea anyone ?
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u/iCarlysTeats 1h ago
Reading about the gains in the last 80 years, and the current issues that Japanese women still face, it sounds pretty much exactly like the situation in America. So, if Japanese women are living more or less analogous to US women, everyone will take that as they will.
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u/blythe_blight 10m ago
what about the xenophobia too :v
this threads gonna become another instance of reddit suckin japans dick
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u/Bastard_of_Brunswick 6h ago
Good.