Another quirky story from Japan...

Japan Buddhism-based party wants to drop pacifism

Japan should drop the pacifist Article 9 of its constitution and prepare to defend itself against North Korea and China, the leader of a new Buddhist-based political party said in an interview on Tuesday.

The Happiness Realization Party, formed by a religious group that says it has 10 million members and previously supported the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), could sway the results of an election that must be held by October.

Ryuho Okawa, who says he is the reincarnation of Buddha, founded the Happy Science religion in 1986, in an attempt to correct what he says are flaws in Buddhist teaching.

"If you take the 'thou shalt not kill' precept too far, you cannot protect your country. Historical fact shows that weakness in Buddhism," Kyoko said. "That's why we wanted to develop Buddhist teaching."

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Japan Buddhism-based party wants to drop pacifism

"If you take the 'thou shalt not kill' precept too far, you cannot protect your country. Historical fact shows that weakness in Buddhism," Kyoko said. "That's why we wanted to develop Buddhist teaching."

This is another example of the difference between true Buddhism as the Buddha taught & Buddhism as a Religion & lnstrument for control.

Japan has the second largest "self-defense" (i.e. army) in the world, it just renamed it so it would satisfy Article 9. The reason to have that article is not to do with religion, but simply that the Japanese, and the Germans for that matter, demonstrated clearly that their societies are not capable of dissenting or opposing tyrannical militant government. These dense nations full of a servile peasant mentality towards one's place in society are highly dangerous, I would wait at least a couple more generations until granting the Germans or Japanese full military capability. jeez, the germans especially, they started like 4 aggressive wars in europe, two of which were World Wars in the modern age. The English haven't started an aggressive war in Europe since like their 18th century meddlings in France right?