Japan
The Family began proselytizing activities in Japan in the early 1970s.
Through FFing and slick public relations the group built a network of powerful friends. Included among these friends were the Naritas, a wealthy and influential couple who purchased property and built a facility in Tateyama for the group that became their model "21st Century International School", known to members as the Heavenly City School (HCS). The HCS would become the nerve center of the Family's worldwide music, literature, and video propaganda operation (see), though in recent years both its importance and number of residents have diminished.
In November, 1987, David Berg, Karen Zerby and their entourage left the Philippines and headed to Japan to oversee the HCS, where Berg began writing a series of Mo Letters pushing education, including "The School Vision!" (ML 2430), saying "It's Japan's hour!", followed by a stream of Letters about Japan such as "It's Up to Japan!" (ML 2404). Berg warned that the Family needed to reach the Japanese youth before the Antichrist made them "demon-possessed leaders to rule the World" (ML 2413:77).
In June, 1992, the leading Japanese news weekly Shukan Bunshun initiated a far-reaching investigative series on Ai no Kazoku or The Family of Love, as the group was then known, with hard-hitting reports detailing strategies and sexual practices. Shukan Bunshun scored a journalistic coup by locating Rick Dupuy (known as Watchman), a former leader who was intimately involved in the sect's Japanese operation for four years prior to his departure in early 1992. Dupuy supplied inside information about the group's clandestine activities, including the use of illegal visas.
In recent years, second generation members in Japan have left in large numbers to pursue secular careers (see Missionary Kids, Third Culture Kids).
Below are some locations the Family has had or maintains a presence.
