Pastors' request

The State Secrets Protection Bill (6.12.2013)

Three Requests



Dear Sirs,

Thank you for receiving this email from us, a Pastors group in Japan.
My name is Kazunobu Atsumi, a pastor in Tokyo Japan, and one of the founders of this movement called "Tokutei himistu hogo ho ni hantai suru bokushi no kai"(meaning; a Pastors group against State Secrecy Law).

Let me give you a brief explanation about what is going on in Japan, and the reason why we pastors have to protest against this State Secrecy Law, by quoting from our Press Release which is attached to this email.

Tokyo, December 9, 2013 – over three hundred Japanese pastors signed a petition requesting the withdrawal of the state secrecy law (tokutei himitsu hogo ho). The bill had gathered controversy because of its potential to violate human rights and freedom, protected by the constitution. It passed the diet on December 6 amidst thousands of protestors surrounding the parliament. The petition campaign requesting the bill’s withdrawal started at 4pm on the 6th, about 7 hours before the law passed; by the 8th, 311 pastors, representing over 40 denominations, had responded.

Now the number of pastors who joined this campaign is about to reach to 380. This number means a lot especially in our country, whose Christian percentage is less than one percent. Our biggest concern is not whether this law is against the constitution or not, but about the violation and hindrance to our Christian faith and ministry/evangelism. And also we cannot ignore one of the hidden purposes of this law of hiding information about nuclear power-generating plants in Fukushima. As you may know, still thousand of people in Fukushima, not only in Fukushima but we can say in everywhere, have a great fear against the effect of radiation.

So, here are our humble requests for you and your school.

1. To pray for Japan; especially regarding this issue of the law, and also church growth in Japan. We would appreciate if this prayer request would be prayed in the chapel time.

2. To bring this information and prayer request to faculties and students' churches.

3. If possible, to reach media; We have done Press Release to domestic and foreign press. But to have more influence toward the government, we need more help from media.

Thank you very much to have a time to read this email. We attached our press release PDF date in this email for more information.

Sincerely,
Kazunobu Atsumi
Co-president, Pastors Association for Peace and Justice
Pastor, Tokyo Megumi Church