Japanese religions’ side business… Love hotels?

Japan is well-known for having lots of modern “religious” groups (shinshukyo), organizations that are registered as religions and pay none of the nation’s hefty corporation tax.

Most are kind of vague spin-offs of Buddhism but spend most of their time dabbling in business, such as schools, baseball teams, golf clubs, real estate, health insurance and so on. Rather than believers in the strict sense of the word these religions have members, who are often employed by the organization as well.

Occasionally these are notorious, such as Aum, the cult group which carried out the sarin attack on Tokyo in 1995.

Well, apparently one of the side businesses for these religious organizations is the hotel industry… and we mean the love hotel business!

Apparently one hotel in Kagawa prefecture had in the entrance a large statue of the Kannon Buddhist goddess of mercy, since its owner was officially registered not as a business but a part of a religious group. It’s perhaps strategic business thinking — but we reckon it would put couples off who are just looking for a couple of hours of physical fun!

The group, Uchu Shinri Gakkai, ran some 23 love hotels in Kagawa and other regions, saving itself billions of yen in taxes over seven years, since as a religion it was exempt from 40% corporation tax. Its other businesses include mushroom processing.

They even had large signs outside the hotels asking for “kisha” (donations) and claimed that ¥2,000 from the ¥5,500 room charges went to “charity”. It was finally stopped and fined in 2008.