Japan is a secular country that rarely has anything to do with religion, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to the population. There are many traditions and beliefs that have entered the daily lives of citizens, but there are also many religious and pseudo-religious organizations that carry great weight.
And it’s not just about Catholicism, Buddhism or the like, but also about small sects that have caused some trouble – even attacks – in Tokyo and other cities. Now one of them seems to have caused a manga to end as well. Indeed, Shueisha has blocked the release of “Kami-sama” no Iru Ie de Sodachimashita ~ Shลซkyล 2-Sei na Watashi-tachi ~ after the comments of the religious organization Happy Science.
In Yomitai digital magazine, this manga, written and drawn by Mariko Kikuchi, aimed to show the lives of people who were born into a religious family and then gave up the beliefs imposed by their parents by interviewing a person of faith and their stories told. An anthological manga, then, that had started its publication in September 2021 and whose fifth chapter was published on January 26th. However, this final chapter caused problems and was removed on February 10 by Shueisha, who apologized for “insulting a particular religion or group of believers.” Just in the days before there was pressure from Happy Science and therefore there is no doubt that this situation has raised some doubts in the publisher to proceed with the publication of the manga.
To reveal everything, the same author Kikuchi was opposite the Weekly Flash magazine, and then narrated that the editor had asked to review all the systems of the next chapters and the manga, saying that the interview with a single person was not enough to show this reality. But when asked how many people needed to be interviewed, the editor did not answer the author. From this situation and other questions, the mangaka realized that Shueisha wanted to change the entire manga and thus refused to make any changes. instead calls for the annulment of his workthus refused to censor himself.
Public publications did not mention Happy Science, and the author herself confirmed that she could not publicly name the lobby organization, but Happy Science herself interacted with the Weekly Flash editorial board, stating, “The Kikuchi manga contained a lot of inaccurate and unfair information, a negative portrait of faith and its teaching” and that Shueisha made the decision to cancel independently and without pressure.
Mangaka Kikuchi, of course, was burned by the situation and said that religions wield too much power and that this leads to censorship and thus blocking of artistic expression in the manga. Definitely, thank Shueisha Publishing for protecting her, although this has not been achieved in the manga. It’s not the first time that Happy Science has found itself caught up in such situations, with coercive practices having been used in the past, thanks in particular to its reference political party, the Happiness Realization Party, which has recently ended up at the center of the storm it has one โspiritual vaccine against Covid-19โ proposed. there Meanwhile, Shueisha has decided to completely remove the manga from its digital magazine. The publisher, on the other hand, continues to rely on MangaPlus in the West.
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