Offspring of religious group followers in Japan, who claim to have suffered due to the compulsion of the groups' teachings, have set up a body to raise awareness about their plight.
The religious groups include the former Unification Church.
Committee members of Japan's Lower House have agreed on a vote of a revised draft of a bill aimed at helping people who have suffered damage from the actions of the former Unification Church.
The vote is scheduled for Thursday. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio is to attend the session ahead of the voting.
Japanese lawmakers have started debating a bill that would regulate donations to religious entities. They include the group formerly known as the Unification Church.
The legislation would ban religious groups from soliciting donations in an unscrupulous manner. Opposition lawmakers want to revise the bill to ban donations that are made under the influence of so-called mind control.
Japan's Diet will debate a bill on Tuesday that could help people who have been exploited by the former Unification Church. It is meant to regulate efforts to solicit donations for religious groups.
The main ruling Liberal Democratic Party presented a revised draft of the bill after two opposition parties called for a more effective one. They want authorities to prevent religious corporations from collecting donations against people's will.
Japan's government has put forward a bill to help the financial victims of religious corporations.
That includes the religious group, formally known as the Unification Church, which has been in the spotlight since the man who shot former prime minister Abe Shinzo cited its exploitation of his family as his motivation.
Japanese judicial officials say that records related to disbandment orders for two religious groups have been destroyed by the district courts that were storing them.
One of the groups was the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the deadly gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in the 1990s.
Amid growing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, some religious facilities in Tokyo are now halting their public services.
A mosque located in the Akihabara district has decided to suspend its Friday prayers until next week.