My name is Yuki Kubota, I’m 24, Japanese and am presently living in Japan with My wife (who is Australian) and our daughter Mia (2 and a half)
It is now half past midnight, I’ve had a long rewarding day, this afternoon the members of our center (or Home as we usually call it) got together to discuss ways in which we can help the victims of the Tsunami in the affected countries, we have received a list of needed items for the people there. Later in the evening I attended a Seminar organized by “21 seiki wo kangairu” - which translated into English literally means “Think about the 21st Century”; whose members are mostly alumni and Professors of Tokyo University. The subject was: Current Events and thoughts on the Japanese Government.

I’m tired and would very much like to crawl in bed with my wonderful wife and child but I can’t sleep knowing that there have been some allegations made about myself and others of us in the Family, stating that we are abused and underprivileged, that we don’t have a proper education and are brainwashed etc… I wish to state the truth about myself.

Accusation: The young people in the Family have no freedom, don’t know anything about the real world and can’t relate to normal people

Truth: I have traveled to 4 countries, Japan, Taiwan, India, and Australia. I have met and socialized with people from all walks of life, never have I felt that my upbringing hindered me in any way from making friends and relating to others, unless they were drug addicts as I’ve never done drugs. I only began to appreciate the life I live when I associating with University Students my age. For the last 3 years I have been taking part in English discussion events in most of the major universities in Tokyo. Meeting them and hearing about their lives made me so thankful for mine. I saw that if I had lived a so called “normal” life, I would have never experienced half of what I have already experienced in my life, I would have been very shy, lacked confidence and concerning only about myself. I would never have been able to meet my beautiful wife who I met in India, and traveled to as many countries. An example of how much of the real world we get to experience, take for example last Christmas:

1. We visited many orphanages doing clown performances and distributing donated gifts, which we collected by doing toy drives in Tokyo
2. Helped to organize and perform at a Christmas Live house event where I organized the music, played some guitar and acted in a play
3. Participated in a Charity Banquet at a 5 star hotel with over 130 guests. Met Ambassadors, Company owners, Doctors, Lawyers and other successful professionals
4. Helped with a Christmas dinner for the homeless, feeding up to a 1000 homeless in Shinjuku park

This is just a little of what we do regularly, and some people say that we are anti social? The notion that we don’t have fair opportunities and haven’t experienced the “real” world is an outright lie. I have worked many jobs starting as a waiter when I was 18, then road construction, then a moving job, found a summer job once working at a large warehouse, then spent 2 years teaching English professionally. When I was 16 I took the “Eiken” test (which is the Japanese Official English Proficiency test), I passed the pre-first level – 1st being the highest level, pre-1st level is usually for college students in their 2nd year - with honors.

I hold the following Certificates:
Teaching English as a second Language
Computer Applications
Youth Counseling

One of my jobs in the Family is the building, set up and maintenance of computers, recently getting more involved in small networks. Never, in all my various experiences, have I felt uneducated, sheltered, or underprivileged, in fact I found it very easy to excel in whatever I did due to my life in the Family learning self discipline, taking initiative, and communication skills. I did meet many young people who supposedly had a “normal” life, but they lacked so much in the form of confidence, experience, and discipline. If anything I felt superior because of my upbringing and faith.

Accusation: Our children lack education and are underprivileged
Truth:
– Babycenter Web site: A typical two-year-old has a vocabulary of about 50 words, although some have many more. Toddlers this age can usually name dozens of things they see regularly, including items around the house (bed, door, chair), animals, (dog, cat, bird, fish), food items, and familiar people. They may be learning one or more words every day at this point and can usually combine them in short sentences.

– My 2 and half year old knows over 500 words and has been creating sentences for many months now. My wife and I believe in early learning, and this is something that has been taught to us in the Family. We believe that education is very important and we are determined to give our daughter the best. When we have guests, which we have many of since we hold bible classes at our home, they are quick to comment on how well behaved and well mannered she is.

– I perform at birthday parties as a clown, and thus get to meet many children from upper class foreign community here in Tokyo, so I am able to compare my child with the many other so called “normal” kids, and if “normal” means, unruly, spoiled, and disobedient then I am glad my daughter is exceptional and properly educated.

– My daughter has no lack in educational materials and we have the full support of the others in our center to give her the very best. There have been accusations that we the young people of the Family haven’t been given a fair enough chance in society because we didn’t go to University or College. My reply, there are countless examples of successful men and women who didn’t go to college, and there are also a countless many who did get a degree in college but did not get very far in life. Take for example my father and his brother. My Uncle attended university and got a degree in Physics, while my father failed the entrance exams and while attending cram school to re-apply met the Family and became a full time missionary. My uncle now runs my grandfathers liquor store in a small town in northern Japan, he has lived there most of his life and only traveled once to Taiwan on his Honeymoon. Nothing he learned in college is doing him much good; it doesn’t take a degree in physics to run a liquor store. My father on the other hand has traveled to many countries, learned new languages, changed lives and made a difference in the world, living a very socially active life. My point, I don’t believe that I need a University degree to make me a success or to help me achieve my goals in life.

Now I will go to sleep, and tomorrow I will continue to live my life to the full, helping others and working to bring hope and peace to those I meet. If you have questions about our lifestyle then feel free to ask, or come and see for yourself. To those who seek to hurt us with their lies and accusations:

There are millions who are abused, starving, and uneducated, if you really want to help someone then do something for them. If you want to help us then donate some of your time or finances to help our worldwide volunteer projects, but please stop trying to “save” us from some fantasy land where we are abused and underprivileged, this place does not exist.

Yuki Kubota is a second-generation member of The Family International