I watch Nihon Terebi News frequently as part of my efforts to improve Japanese listening, but this story really caught my attention. In parts of Japan, there are “love hotels” with large Buddhist status of Kannon Bodhisattva, and in the hotel rooms they ask for offerings. The english-language version of the story can be found in the Asahi Newpaper article here.
Even if you don’t understand Japanese, you really should watch the little segment from Nihon Terebi because it is just too unreal to believe. “Love Hotels” or rabu hoteru (ラブホテル) are basically specialized hotels for people to express their, uh, love. Anyways, these hotels supposedly have a Buddhist theme claiming to help needy children in the country with your monetary donation.
As you watch the segment, you can see the reporter tracking down the address where the group, Uchu Shinri Gakkai (宇宙真理学会), are based, and it turns out to be an apartment with no electricity and no one has been seen in the apartment for years.
The Asahi english-language article explains that this is apparently a tax-fraud scheme by a local company that registered as a religious group, even though they sell vegetables. My Japanese isn’t that good, so I didn’t understand this part from the Nihon Terebi video segment. I just thought the entire thing was both hilarious and really infuriating (because of the fraud aspect).
Amazing what people will do to make more money. :-0
P.S. When I looked up 宇宙真理学会 on Google, I also found some New Age website based in Taiwan. No idea if they’re related or not.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
This sounds like a marvelous approach to interdependent living with love.