Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Tōgane, Chiba, Japan · 2024

Japan: temple abbot convicted after court finds he exploited a disciple's 'absolute obedience'

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

chief priest (abbot) of a Buddhist temple

Organization

Myōon-ji Temple, Honmon Butsuryū-shū

Spiritual nexus

The court's own finding supplies the nexus in the plainest terms available anywhere in this database: the doctrinal relationship of absolute obedience between abbot and disciple is what prevented the victim from refusing.

  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-12-11 · conviction and sentence

    Chiba District Court, Yōkaichiba Branch, Japan. Sachihisa Fukasawa, former chief priest of Myōon-ji Temple, was convicted of quasi-forcible indecency against a female disciple, assaulted inside the temple. The court found he had exploited the relationship of absolute obedience (絶対服従の関係) to prevent the victim from refusing.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • doctrinal relationship of absolute obedience between abbot and disciple

Primary record

Sources

reliable contemporaneous court reporting verdict report Contemporaneous Japanese reporting of the Chiba District Court (Yōkaichiba branch) verdict in the Myōon-ji case, 11 Dec. 2024.

Reports the conviction for quasi-forcible indecency and quotes the court's finding that the abbot exploited the relationship of absolute obedience.

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