News Surge in temple and shrine purchases leads to crackdown on fraudulent transactions

[thomas]

In Japan, owning temples or shrines can offer significant tax benefits. Religious corporations are permitted to operate a variety of businesses. Due to concerns about unscrupulous buyers, authorities seek to implement stricter regulations on purchasing religious properties.

A surge in religious properties coming up for sale has Japanese authorities worried that prospective buyers are not interested in them for heavenly purposes. Instead, they fear that many are out to dodge taxes or even launder money. [...] Cases of temple or shrine properties being extensively repurposed have triggered public outrage. In Osaka, a temple sold in 2020 was later razed, and dozens of graves were relocated to make way for a property development. In Kyoto, a case about a temple demolished and turned into a parking lot made headlines this year. Owning a temple, shrine or church recognised as a religious corporation in Japan can confer sizeable tax benefits. Businesses under such corporations that offer religious services, such as funerals, do not have to pay taxes, while other non-religious businesses also enjoy preferential tax rates. A wide range of undertakings are allowed, from restaurants to hair salons to hotels. According to the agency's data, Japan had about 180,000 religious sites with corporation status as of the end of 2023. The number of so-called inactive corporations - such as those with no religious events for over a year - jumped by a third to more than 4,400.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sales-japan-temples-shrines-surge-crackdown-bad-faith-buyers-2024-09-19/

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

Is inquired 30% a Chinese? The actual situation of the religious corporation broker "new religion as for being popular most" that a temple and Shinto shrine of Japan "are bought and sold" in a net business, regulation

"280 million yen that there is the Buddha statue of the Shiga important cultural property" in "huge land 480 million yen with the Hyogo cemetery." The buying and selling of a Shinto shrine and the temple is carried out on the Internet flourishingly now. Takao Yamamoto (64) of the religious corporation broker says, "the definition of the religious corporation buying and selling is "the change registration of the representative officer", and land and the building are premiums".

In the site of Yamamoto, the business only for religious corporation qualifications is set from 30 million yen. It is greatly 2 patterns for sale. "The temple without the inheritor who ages, and does not have the believer. The religious corporation which there is not the intention that I want to sell, but is sold in カタ of the debt. The buying and selling of such a religious corporation is brought into question, in the Diet for a discussion.

In the religious corporation, the income that I got by religious activity or property tax, the inheritance tax of land, the building become tax-free. The buying and selling of the religious corporation abuses this on the performed back, and it is said that there is the person scheming tax evasion and money laundering.

問い合わせの3割が中国人？日本の寺や神社がネットで｢売買されている｣ 宗教法人ブローカー｢一番売れるのは新興宗教｣ 取引･規制の実態は | 国内 | ABEMA TIMES | アベマタイムズ

「滋賀県 重要文化財の仏像あり 2億8000万円」「兵庫県 霊園付き 巨大な土地 4億8000万円」。今、インターネット上では神社や寺の売買が盛んに行われている。宗教法人ブローカーの山本隆雄氏（64）は、「宗教法人売買の定義は『代表役員の変更登記』であり…

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