Law on Religious Communities

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basic data
Title: 宗教 団 体 法
shūkyō dantaihō
"Law on Religious Communities "
Type: hōritsu
Number: 昭和 14 年 4 月 8 日 法律 第 77 号
Law No. 77 of April 8, Shōwa 14 (1939)
Expiry: k. Decree ( chokurei ) No. 718 of December 28th Shōwa 20 (1945) [implementation of the Potsdam Declaration]
Legal text on the Internet: www.digital.archives.go.jp ( DjVu , JPEG )
Please note the note on the applicable legal version . Only the Japanese legal texts have legal effect, not translations into English or other languages.

The law on religious communities ( Japanese 宗教 団 体 法 , shūkyō dantaihō ) from the Shōwa period was the first systematically created law on the legal status of religious groups in Japan and concerned in particular rules for their recognition and monitoring by the state.

history

Based on a draft from 1935, it was passed as Law No. 77 by the Japanese Parliament on April 8, 1939. It came into force with Chokurei ( 勅令 ; decree of Tennō ) No. 855 of December 1939 on April 1, 1940; it was last amended on March 29, 1940 . Similar attempts at such a law had previously been rejected by parliament in 1927 and 1929.

For the first time, the law gave various religious groups the freedom to become legal entities . Buddhist temples were expressly declared as pre-existing legal entities. Shinto shrines , however, were not even mentioned in the entire legal text. This already applies to the first paragraph in which the objects of the law are defined:

"§1 In this law, Shintoist sects (kyôha), Buddhist denominations (shûha) and Christian or other religious associations (kyôdan) (hereinafter referred to as sects, denominations and religious associations for short) as well as temples and churches are designated as religious communities."

This corresponds with the policy of the Japanese state at the time not to declare the shrine Shinto, protected as State Shinto , to be a religion due to the freedom of religion guaranteed in Article 28 of the Meiji Constitution , and thus inevitably to be an unfairly preferred state religion .

The control functions given to the Ministry of Education and the Prefectural Governors by law were far-reaching. For example, the impeachment of religious dignitaries and even bans on entire religious communities could be ordered not only on the basis of generally formulated disturbances of public order , but also for violations of internal religious principles:

"§16 If the dissemination of teachings or the performance of ceremonies of a religion or if religious events disturb the public peace and order or violate the obligations of the subjects, the minister responsible can restrict or prohibit the Suspend the preacher's exercise of office or revoke the recognition of the establishment of the religious community. "

Ҥ17 If a religious community or a person who holds an office in an organ of a religious community violates the laws or religious regulations [of a sect], the order [of a denomination] or the statutes of a religious association, a temple or a church violates or otherwise commits an act that is likely to damage the common good , the competent minister can repeal, suspend or prohibit it or order a change of the office holder concerned. [...] "

Violations of such ministerial decisions could be punished according to §26 with penal or prison sentences of up to 6 months or fines of up to 500 yen .

After the capitulation of Japan , which ended the Second World War , the law was adopted during the occupation of Japan as implementation of the positions decided in the Potsdam Declaration on the instructions of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) of October 4, 1945 with effect from December 28 abolished in the same year by chokurei number 718.

On the same day, Chokurei number 719, the decree on religious societies replacing the law on religious communities ( 宗教 法人 令 , shūkyō hōjinrei ), the content of which had previously been negotiated with representatives of the SCAP and various Japanese religious groups, was issued with immediate effect.

This decree was finally replaced on April 3, 1951 by the Law on Religious Societies ( 宗教 法人 法 , shūkyō hōjinhō ). This is still in force today (last amendment in December 1997).

Today's reception

In modern Japanese jurisprudence, the law on religious communities is generally regarded as a prime example of the restrictive legislation of the state Shinto policy of the Japanese Empire , under which religious freedom was nothing more than an empty formula. In explaining its reasons for the decision of May 14, 1974 of the second instance on the so-called legal dispute over the Jichinsai of Tsu , the Nagoya Higher Regional Court found that the law on religious communities regarding the historical classification of the relationship between religious freedom and the separation of state and religion together with the Law for the Maintenance of Public Security and the Enactment on the Punishment of Police Crimes ( 警察 犯 処罰 令 , keisatsuhan shobatsurei ), various religious communities that the Japanese state disliked (the OLG explicitly named the Ōmoto-kyō , the Hitonomichi Kyōdan , the Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai , the Hokke-shū , the Nihon Kirisuto Kyōdan and the Hōrinesu Kyōha ) and subordinate them to the Japanese state idea.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Lokowandt 1981, p. 81
  2. ↑ Quoted from Lokowandt 1981, p. 85
  3. ↑ Quoted from Lokowandt 1981, p. 85 f.

literature

  • Wilhelmus HM Creemers: Shrine Shinto after World War II . EJ Brill, Leiden 1968.
  • Ernst Lokowandt: On the relationship between the state and Shintô in Japan today . Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1981. ISBN 3-447-02094-6 .

Web links