| This text has been slightly reworded from the original Japanese text in order to translate it into English. The original intent has not been changed. The translation was done using the translation sites DeepL and Google Translate. |
| February 12, 2025 Dear Mr. Kazuo Shii My name is Toshiji Shimizu. I live in Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture. I am writing to you because I have something I really want to talk to Mr. Shii. I am not acquainted with Mr. Shii. I have prepared one of these letters to Mr. Shii and sent it to his office in the Diet. My age is 66 years old. After graduating from high school in Toyohashi, Aichi, I worked in dental clinics and dental laboratories for the first 10 years of my career, and then opened a dental laboratory in Toyohashi for the next 20 years, running my own business. I operated my business as a dental technician until I was 54 years old, but I have now stopped working as a dental technician. I am a Catholic who was baptized in 2014, after I turned 50, out of necessity. Now, ever since I have been working in the dental laboratory, I have felt a special sense of obligation to do something. I always felt as if I was being urged to do something for the benefit of many people, but I never knew what to do. I chose dental technician as my profession, so I decided to do something in the field of dentistry and invented new dental technology. I invented some and sent reports to dentists in my city, but I could not come up with anything good. After I closed my own dental laboratory, I continued to submit reports to dentists for several years. Today, we use CAD when designing dental prosthetics, but one day I learned that we could pioneer a new method of dental laboratory work by applying AI. However, in order to introduce it into the current dental practice, I thought that a different philosophy was needed. I will not go into details here, but I thought that by incorporating the concept of autopoiesis into dynamical systems theory, we could objectively describe human existence and cognitive functions in the world. We thought that this philosophy could be used to support a new way of applying AI to dental technology. I also thought that by using this dynamical systems theory as a new understanding of Christianity, it would be possible to root Christianity in Japan. In fact, I have also sent a letter to Mr. Yukinori Nemoto, a member of the House of Representatives and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. Mr. Nemoto’s constituency is Toyohashi City and Tahara City, Aichi Prefecture, where I live. As for what I asked Mr. Nemoto to do, you can read the letter to him for more details. I will briefly explain its contents. I have a project that I would like to see realized by “Institute of Science Tokyo”. However, I am not a well-known person in the field of dentistry, nor do I have any achievements in this field. Therefore, I (Shimizu) cannot fulfill that role. I thought the dentists at USC (University of Southern California School of Dentistry) in the U.S. could play a role in asking “Institute of Science Tokyo” to do so. At that time, I asked Mr. Nemoto to play a coordinating role. I have no relationship with the USC School of Dentistry in the United States. I have forced a relationship with them by saying that this request is a “request from God”. Therefore, I do not know if they will really listen to my request for this reason. It may seem like a pipe dream for a mere layman like me to think that a new Christianity can take root in Japan. This is something I think about myself, but having such a wish seems like a fantasy that will never come true. It seems like some kind of a fluffy thing, but I think it needs to produce some kind of result. In my personal opinion, I believe that the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification is involved in the matter of rooting a new Christianity in Japan. As I am sure you know, there is a possibility that a court order may be issued to dissolve the organization, stemming from the “shooting incident of former Prime Minister Abe” on July 8, 2022. The former Unification Church was said to be a church led by the Messiah. However, in the past, this cult has been called a cult and heretical by the established Christian churches, and there was this incident regarding the order to dissolve the religious order. I want them to do the work of the original messiah. For this purpose, I met with a member of the congregation of the Family Church of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in Toyohashi City. The reason I have written to Mr. Shii this time is that while doing so, I suddenly remembered the Japanese Communist Party, which advocates “scientific socialism.” So I decided to send out a letter, and this is the kind of letter I actually sent out. What Japan needs today is to make the “The presence of the Emperor of Japan appealing to the world.” According to the provisions of the Constitution of Japan, the Emperor of Japan is “The Emperor shall be the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people, deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power.” In my opinion, the existence of the Emperor of Japan was incorporated into the Constitution based on the theory of divine right of kingship when the Constitution of the Empire of Japan was enacted, and this theory was carried over into the Constitution of Japan. In other words, although it is a constitution, I believe that the existence of the emperor also includes religious concepts. As you know, the Emperor of Japan plays an important role in Shintoism and Japanese Buddhism. In other words, the teachings of Shintoism and Japanese Buddhism are deeply embedded in the basic structure of Japan, including the administrative structure, through the existence of the Emperor of Japan. I am not saying that this is a bad thing, but I do not think it is sufficient. Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has actively adopted the culture of science. However, due to the lack of understanding of Christianity in Japan, I think that we have not been able to control Christian-derived science well enough to this day. Since the scientific revolution of the 17th century, science has become materialistic and appealed to people for a material-centered “God-less way of life. Indeed, philosophers’ proofs of God’s existence have only been accepted by those involved and those who are fascinated by them. It is no wonder, since they are not using generally accepted scientific axioms to prove their case. In this age of materialism, I believe that Japan, which is blessed with an Emperor who is called “Emperor” by other countries, should make a new proposal to the rest of the world. As you know, Christianity is hardly recognized in Japan. This is evident from the fact that the number of Christian believers, whether Catholic or Protestant, is only about 1% of the population. Naturally, Japan has freedom of religion, so I do not think that the small number of Christian believers is anyone’s fault. However, it is no exaggeration to say that the fact that Japan has progressed through the culture of science since the Meiji Restoration and has been able to exist as an independent country within the framework of the world is due to the blessings of science. In the 17th century, it was undoubtedly those of the Christian faith who re-created Greek philosophy into science. I believe that science may not exist within the Christian church, but it definitely exists within the framework of Christianity. I understand that the JCP (Japanese Communist Party) is also very interested in science. Communism is also known as “scientific socialism”. I have watched the YOUTUBE video “Explaining ‘Human Freedom’ and Socialism/Communism with ‘Marx and Engels’ Capitalism’ as a guide” in which Mr. Shii appears. In the past, the Soviet Union was a grand experiment in nation-building based on Marx and Engels’ Capitalism, and it collapsed as a result. I think that “scientific socialism,” a perspective not traditionally associated with Japan, may have some significance to its existence, but that’s all it is. I hastily borrowed and read a book from the library titled “What is Religion? – Thinking from the Viewpoint of Scientific Socialism” (by Takenori Higuma, published by Honnoizumisya), and it seems that the JCP basically denies religion. To quote a portion of the book’s text, “Marx said that because this society deprived man of his human nature, religion was a fantasy about the true nature of man, and that ‘misfortune in religion is, on the one hand, an expression of actual misfortune and, on the other hand, a protest against actual misfortune’. Religion is the sigh of the troubled, the mind of the material world as well as the spirit of the spirit-less condition. It is the opium of the people. (Above, pp. 18-19, Shin Nihon Bunko)” It also explains the position of the JCP as follows “The JCP takes scientific socialism as its theoretical foundation. Its worldview does not believe in supernatural beings such as God or Buddha. However, the question of the party’s worldview is a separate issue from the spiritual life of the nation and society. To impose the scientific socialist worldview as the ideology of the state on society as a whole, without acknowledging the existence of various philosophies, is a conflation of party and state, and must not be allowed to happen. Scientific socialists are convinced that this worldview will be the majority of mankind in the future. But that is a prediction about the future. The important thing is that there must be no intervention by state power in the affairs of ideas and religions, now or in the future.” Therefore, I believe that the JCP recognizes the relationship between the sacred and the secular. The text of my postings on my website, the content of my letter to Mr. Yukinori Nemoto, the content statement of my e-mail to the USC School of Dentistry, and my interview with the congregation of the Family Association for World Peace and Unification, all together reveal the requirements that led me to submit this letter to the JCP. That is, I hope to give birth to a new Christianity in Japan in line with the project I have requested to the Institute of Science Tokyo, and I wonder if the JCP could do something to concur. I wrote this letter to the JCP on a sudden spur of the moment because I really want the culture of science to take root in the very core of Japan. My role may be to communicate, not to do. Today, material civilization seems to be reaching its limits. Simply extracting wealth from materials and utilizing it for the benefit of the human world seems to cause the phenomenon of global warming. I do not think this will change fundamentally in the future, but it seems that we need to devise some new way of doing things. I have also enclosed several documents, and there is a separate document on my web site that can be downloaded. If you have any ideas, could you please send a message to Mr. Yukinori Nemoto, a member of the House of Representatives, within the next two weeks or so? I have come up with this letter on short notice and would appreciate your cooperation. Toshiji Shimizu |
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