Buddhist National Reform in Japan
AN association has been organized in Japan, the object of which is to maintain Buddhism, especially in view of its political character in the empire. The members pledge themselves, in the selection of representatives in Parliament, provincial assemblies, town councils, or local offices, and in the appointment of school-teachers, officials of societies and business companies, “carefully to exclude all who are disloyal to our emperor or untrue to Buddhism by believing in the foreign religion called Christianity.” This is simply National Reform in the interest of Buddhism. But there is hope for Christianity in the fact that many of the Japanese newspapers which have no special interest in Christianity are condemning severely this attempt to drag religion into the sphere of politics. And it ought to be condemned not only in Japan but in the United States. If it is right that the majority should rule in matters of religion in one country it cannot be wrong in another, and Japan would have the same right to exclude or boycott Christianity that the United States would have to discriminate in religious matters.