## Facts

- A Buddhist priestess conducted a religious ritual intended to expel an “evil spirit” believed to be causing an adult woman’s serious mental illness.
- The ritual involved burning incense, chanting prayers, and rubbing the woman’s body with prayer beads.
- When the woman resisted, the priestess and family members restrained her and continued the ritual with sustained physical pressure.
- The woman died during the ritual.
- Prosecutors charged the priestess under Penal Code Article 250 for inflicting bodily injury resulting in death.
- A trial court convicted the priestess; the Osaka High Court affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether a person acting under sincere religious belief, and without intent to harm, can be criminally liable for inflicting bodily injury resulting in death based on coercive physical acts performed during a faith-healing ritual.
2. Whether applying a generally applicable criminal law to punish a faith-healing ritual that caused death violates constitutional freedom of religion.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Japan affirmed the conviction.
- The Court held that the restraint and coercive physical conduct during the ritual constituted “bodily injury” and was causally connected to the victim’s death within the meaning of Article 250.
- The Court rejected the argument that sincere religious purpose immunized the conduct from criminal liability.
- The Court held that punishing the conduct did not violate constitutional freedom of religion because the State may restrict religiously motivated acts that seriously harm others’ life and bodily integrity.

## Legal Principles

- Freedom of religion protects belief and worship but does not excuse religiously motivated conduct that inflicts bodily harm and results in death.
- For injury-resulting-in-death offenses, criminal liability may rest on intentional performance of the injurious acts and causation; intent to kill is not required.
- A good-faith religious motive may bear on blameworthiness or sentencing but does not negate the elements of a neutral criminal prohibition applied to harmful conduct.

## Conclusion

The court sustained a conviction for fatal bodily injury arising from a coercive faith-healing ritual, holding that religious motivation is not a defense to generally applicable criminal laws protecting life and physical safety.


Nishida v. Japan, Keishū 17-402 (Sup. Ct. Japan 1963)