Posts Tagged ‘religion’

Former Komeito chief speaks out against Soka Gakkai

There is sometimes speculation about the connections between the Japan Times and religious sect Soka Gakkai, but the papers seems to have printed a story today about a former leader of the New Komeito party speaking out against the sect:

According to Yano, Soka Gakkai forced him to abandon his activities as a political commentator, published libelous statements about him in the group’s Seikyo Shimbun newspaper, and has attempted to force him into selling his house to make a ¥200 million to ¥300 million donation to the group over the last several years.

Yano, who had been a member of Soka Gakkai for more than 50 years, also said he and members of his family have been under surveillance and shadowed by strangers on a daily basis.

“Soka Gakkai is not what it used to be. It has changed,” Yano said during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. Soka Gakkai “is taking antisocial action here and there, and I feel righteous indignation as a citizen.

After he and his family left the group, Yano filed a damages suit against Soka Gakkai on May 12. He was then countersued by an executive member of the influential group, which effectively serves as New Komeito’s base.

“As someone who was a lawmaker for a long time, I felt I was abandoning my social responsibility by keeping my mouth shut” about Soka Gakkai, Yano said. “Also, I felt it wouldn’t do any good to the members of Soka Gakkai themselves, who took care of me, if I endured (the threats) in bitter silence.”
[...]

Soka Gakkai “is a massive religious organization that has strong political influence . . . I cannot overlook its antisocial behavior anymore,” Yano said.

The New Komeito Party is nothing more than Soka Gakkai’s political wing. Most Japanese people are well aware of this, especially those that face annoying requests before every election to vote for Komeito from co-workers and friends that that are members of the sect.

The Japanese media is afraid to report the obvious about this issue because doing so would imply that the religious party violates Japan’s constitutional separation of church and state, something that would surely invite lawsuits from Soka Gakkai/New Komeito. The Japan Times phrases the relationship between the religion and the party by writing that Soka Gakkai “effectively serves as New Komeito’s base,” which is about as close to the truth as media reports can get without entering dangerous territory.

56% of Japanese have had some form of supernatural experience

The Yomiuri reports on an interesting survey:

According to the survey, 26 percent of respondents said they believed in a religion, virtually unchanged from a similar survey conducted three years ago. Only 37 percent said religion was important for living a happy life.

Views of people’s religious sentiment were split, with 45 percent of respondents saying Japanese had little religious faith while 49 percent thought otherwise.

However, 94 percent of respondents said they respected their ancestors, and 56 percent claimed to have had some form of supernatural experience.

The results suggested that many Japanese feel little affinity to a particular religion, but many do harbor feelings of respect for things that are scientifically unproven.

The Yomiuri Shimbun interviewed 3,000 randomly selected people across the country face-to-face on May 17-18, of whom 1,837 gave valid answers.

Asked about what happens to people’s spirits after they die, 30 percent said they believed they would be reincarnated, 24 percent said they would go to another world and 18 percent answered they would vanish.

The recent popularity of new forms of spirituality and other new age-related beliefs, such as an interest in previous lives and guardian angels, was particularly prominent among female respondents. Although 21 percent of all respondents said they were interested in such thinking–far below the 75 percent who were not–27 percent of women saw the appeal of such beliefs, whereas only 13 percent of men said they felt this way….

Japanese cartoon offends Muslims

The above-pictured scene from a Japanese cartoon has led to outrage in Egypt because it apparently depicts Muslims as terrorists:

The scene from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, adapted from a comic strip published from 1987 to 2003, generated angry responses on more than 300 Arab and Islamic Internet forums, with many accusing Japan of insulting the Koran, Kyodo said.

The scene depicts Muslims as terrorists, Kyodo cited Sheikh Abdul Hamid Attrash, chairman of the Fatwa Committee at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, as saying. An unidentified official at Shueisha Inc., a Japanese publisher involved in the cartoon’s movie version, told Kyodo the Koran’s use was “a simple mistake” stemming from employees’ inability to read Arabic.

Cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban [scroll down to view it] were published in 2005 in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, prompting protests in Muslim communities worldwide and consumer boycotts of Danish products.

According to descriptions in the Japanese media, the offending scene is one in which a bad guy who had fled to Egypt reads a book written in Arabic and then calls for someone to be killed.

Over at Shueisha’s homepage there is a special link in English that takes visitors to this apology letter:

Like any corporation that would want to continue doing business in the Middle East, Shueisha apologized and suspended sales of the anime. But was an apology really necessary? What exactly is so insulting and offensive about the idea of a bad guy in the Middle East using the Koran to justify a killing?

Those filled with rage about the offensiveness of such a scene might want to focus more of their attention on what’s going on in the real world, because it’s not exactly rare to see groups using the Koran to call for violence, war, and killing. If, by some chance, the author of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure had actually intended for the book in question to be the Koran, he may have gotten the idea from some of the many individuals who have made international news in recent years by using the Koran to justify terrible acts of violence. It’s those individuals, not the creators of this manga/anime, who are making people around the world associate Islam with terrorism.

Read more…

Non-Religious Japan

Kirainet brings to attention an international survey that ranked the world’s most non-religious nations. Japan is near the top of the ranking:

Another survey puts Japan in the top tier of nations with populations most likely to believe in evolution. Could Japan be a paradise for atheists?

Other surveys on religion in Japan present a bit more information. While a 2006 Gallup poll found only 30% of the population to be religious, it reportedly found Christianity to be on the increase in Japan, accounting for 6% of the country’s population. A Japan Guide survey found that nearly 50% of Japanese users on their international penpal site identify themselves as a member of a religion, and that a majority of them visit places of worship at least once a year (the common practice of New Year’s offerings at Shinto shrines probably accounts for a good portion of this). In my own personal experiences, I have encountered many Japanese who do not consider themselves religious but still visit shrines to make good luck offerings, and belief in honoring the spirits of one’s dead relatives through Buddhist funerals and mini-shrines within households is still common. There also seems to be a lot of superstitions going around, and some Japanese are fearful about the activities strong Buddhist sects and small cults.