Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Japanese religious freedom battle goes back to school

In mid-September 2006, with the heat of summer still not over, a master's student named “N” of Osaka University was stepping out of a research ward when he was surrounded by six waiting individuals, including his parents and other relatives. The stunned N was not only kept immobile as his belt was tightly grabbed by two of his captors, but he was also held incommunicado as his cellular phone was confiscated, making it impossible to signal an SOS to his friends.

N was placed in the middle seat of an apparently rented van and was flanked on both sides., Parked in the campus lot, the vehicle's navigation system was covered with a handkerchief so as not to reveal the abductors' destination.

Due to this kidnapping, N was deprived of the opportunity to give a presentation at an academic society, for which he had ardently worked. "I was at a loss when he went missing," N’s faculty advisor later reported. N's academic career was hampered by a barbaric act against his will.

Similar barbarism was rampant in Okayama University in 2002. When Ms. “I” was coming out of her department building after class, she was kidnapped by about 15 people, led by her relatives. (During that period at Okayama, there were at least seven confirmed cases in a row, in which students were abducted by their families.) Several of Ms. I’s friends tried to rescue her in the ensuing scuffle, but her relatives forced her into a vehicle and drove away.

Okayama University Library (Tsushima Campus)
But it was after the year 2006 that many universities across the country began to witness ominous “persecution” against members of religiously-oriented on-campus clubs under the pretext of “anti-cult measures.”

The targets included a new Korean Christian group called "Setsuri” (Providence), the Buddhist group "Jodo Shinshu Shinrankai" affiliated with the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist sect, the group "Fuji Taishakuji Kenshokai," which challenged the administration of a Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist sect, as well as "John's Waseda Church," of the Protestant line.

The most victims by far, however, have been from the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), a student organization affiliated with the Unification Church. In the past five years, about 40 confirmed cases of kidnappings and confinement involving CARP members took place within college campuses.

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