Is it true that The Children and Families Agency was created by the Japanese government in cahoots with Soka Gakkai, a religious organization, to kidnap children? No, that's not true: The Agency does not offer any adoption or in-house services for children with troubled family backgrounds. Its goal is to support families with difficulty raising children, financially or otherwise. Though the Children and Families Agency aims to develop childcare facilities such as nurseries and certified childcare centers, these are mainly support systems for state-run or privately-run nurseries, and the Children and Families Agency is only an organizational body that will assist in such development, not directly overseeing it.
The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here), published on August 28, 2024. The TikTok video contains a snippet from an Instagram profile that takes clips from an influencer, Kyota Masayoshi, who has posted several conspiracy theories on his page in the past. Translated from Japanese to English, Masayoshi explains in the video how the Children and Families Agency is kidnapping children on behalf of Soka Gakkai, a Japanese Buddhist organization considered a cult by some experts and deprogrammers:
They (Children and Families Agency) are organized by Soka Gakkai, and their main aim is kidnapping children [...] In order to kidnap children, Soka Gakkai uses family data collected by organizations affiliated with the Children and Families Agency, such as the Shinkenzemi
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Sep 19 09:09:08 2024 UTC)
The Children and Families Agency (archived here) was launched on April 1, 2023, and is an external bureau of the Cabinet Office directly under the Prime Minister. As per Articles 20 and 89 of the Japanese Constitution (archived here and here), the state is obliged to protect the freedom of religion while remaining secular. Being directly affiliated with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office (archived here), the Children and Families Agency could not be subject to any religious influence such as one coming from Soka Gakkai. The Agency was founded due to several current and emerging issues surrounding children in Japan (archived here), such as the effect of an aging society on childrearing, the birth deficit, child poverty issues, and school bullying. Several policies they aim to develop include a "Children's Program" (archived here), which aims to set basic principles for any policy initiatives on child-related issues.
The Children and Families Agency's page on nurseries (archived here) also states that most of its action is in the administrative and training component of developing schools for children, not in direct ownership of these nurseries and preschools.
The Shinkenzemi (archived here) is a correspondence course offered to elementary, middle, and high school students managed by Benesse (archived here), an educational and publishing company that provides correspondence programs. Benesse is a private company not directly affiliated with any ministries or agencies. The only search result that remotely links the three together comes from an independent blogger on Note (archived here) that disproves the connections between the Children and Families Agency and any religious organizations, namely the Unification Church and Soka Gakkai.
A Google search conducted by Lead Stories staff on September 26, 2024, in both English and Japanese (archived here and here) using the following keywords: "Children and Families Agency AND Soka Gakkai AND Shinkenzemi AND Benesse" and "進研ゼミ こども家庭庁 創価学会" did not return any result that could corroborate the claim made in the TikTok video.
In its policy presentation (archived here) for nurseries, the Agency clearly states that its main aim is to support childcare facilities to provide fulfilling activities for children, as well as promote community-based childcare benefits to address the issue of children on waiting lists for daycares and nurseries in urban areas impacted by the aging population problem. The Agency mostly plays a supportive role in realizing better childrearing conditions by improving the structure of childcare facilities, in which it will also develop child safety and anti-bullying strategies in tandem with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (archived here).
Soka Gakkai (archived here) is a Buddhist religious organization in Japan focused on the teachings of Nichiren, a Japanese monk from the 13th century (archived here). The organization was founded in 1975 by Daisaku Ikeda (archived here), a Buddhist leader. According to some cult experts (archived here) and deprogrammers such as Rick Alan Ross (archived here), Soka Gakkai would be recognized as a cult due to the presence of its cultural centers and schools (archived here) rather than following a more traditionally religious approach of setting up temples. The organization has been linked to politics several times, such as the creation of the Komeito Party (archived here), founded in 1964 at the initiative of Ikeda and serving as Soka Gakkai's official entry into Japanese politics. Since then, Soka Gakkai has mainly phased out its political ties, and the Komeito only maintains irregular relations with the organization through endorsements (archived here).
