Japanese sect raided by 400 police officers

Hundreds of police raided a mostly female sect in central Japan today on suspicion that a member was beaten to death for failing to carry out her religious rites.

Television footage showed dozens of officers marching into the headquarters of Kigankai, a group which has been based for nearly 40 years in the mountain city of Nagano northwest of Tokyo.

The sect was known for selling members “purified” water and stones purported to cure all ills.

“Today’s raid was made on suspicion of murder,” a police spokesman said, adding that it involved 400 officers.

The victim was identified as Motoko Okuno, 63, who owned a sushi restaurant.

News reports, quoting investigators, said Okuno was beaten to death by some 10 other sect members as punishment for laziness in religious rites.

Police seized documents from the headquarters and questioned senior sect officials, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported online, saying police have obtained arrest warrants for 21 members of the group, all of them women.

The case came to light when the woman’s body was taken last month to a hospital, where doctors observed bruises indicating she had been beaten.

Okuno’s relatives initially came forward to police and said they had beaten her to death in a domestic dispute, but police grew suspicious that they were making false statements on behalf of the sect, news reports said.

Kigankai was founded in 1970 with the professed goal of promoting Shintoism, Japan’s indigenous faith, and was estimated to have some 400 members.

Japan, where few people are fervently religious, has seen repeated crimes and scares involving small religious groups.

In 1995, the Aum Supreme Truth cult, which preached of a coming apocalypse, unleashed Nazi-invented Sarin nerve gas on rush-hour Tokyo trains, killing 12 people and injuring thousands of others.

Read Another Article

AK-47 linked to Black Muslim bakery killed 2 men, Oakland cops say
Japan: Religious group raided over suspicious death of 63-year-old follower

Related News Articles Topic(s): Kigenkai Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Kigenkai Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog