Probing Pana Wave's nature

「パナウェーブ」の対応策

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and other prefectural police authorities searched white-camouflaged vehicles as well as cult facilities in Tokyo and four other prefectures: Fukui, Yamanashi, Okayama and Fukuoka. Police questioned key members of the cult and confiscated many documents and materials. The trigger for conducting the raids was suspicion that some group members had committed a relatively minor law violation: making false car registrations.

At the moment, the cult is not suspected of any serious offense. Nevertheless, it has created suspicion and even alarm, in large part because very little is known about this quasi-religious organization, particularly its activities and finances. Police should speed up their investigation to find out what it is up to. One lesson from Aum Shinrikyo is that its heinous crimes, including the sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway in March 1995, could have been prevented if police had begun investigating the group sooner.

As for Pana Wave, police first must do everything they can to clear up public apprehensions about it. An analysis of seized documents, for example, may provide clues to its real aims. One can only hope that it is just a bizarre cult with no destructive intent. Given the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion, investigators need to exercise utmost caution.

This is not the first time that police have raided the cult. In April 1998, Hiroshima Prefectural Police searched its facilities in Tokyo, Fukui and Okayama on suspicion that some members had tried to engage in extortion. In the latest case, the group is suspected of making false car registrations using another person's name. Police say this may have been done systematically during the past several years.

Until recently, Pana Wave was not even included in the MPD's watch list on grounds that it posed no threat to public safety. It came under surveillance after its members, dressed completely in white, began to behave strangely, causing friction with locals. The cult founder, a 69-year-old woman, had warned in an apocalyptic message that a big earthquake would hit in early May.

The extensive police mobilization seems out of proportion to the relative lightness of the suspected offenses. False car registration carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison or a ¥500,000 fine. The scale of the search suggests determination on the part of law-enforcement authorities to forestall any untoward developments involving the weird cult.

According to the National Police Agency, the dress and behavior of Pana Wave cultists bear an eerie resemblance to those of early Aum Shinrikyo followers. Initially, police were not much concerned about Aum because it was considered more or less harmless. What happened afterward, of course, proved them wrong. Aum was disbanded as a religious organization following a series of felonies.

At this stage, Pana Wave does not appear to be a security menace. It claims to be engaged in the scientific study of electromagnetic waves harmful to the human body and the environment. It says its vehicles and members are clad in white to reduce the effects of such electromagnetic radiation. Even trees along the forest roads where the caravan parked were covered with white cloth.

The cult, founded in the late 1970s, is not registered as a religious organization, and many of its members, numbering an estimated 1,200 across the country, live collectively in mountains, according to the police agency. The group is said to have its headquarters and other facilities in Fukui Prefecture. New sites are reportedly under construction in Yamanashi.

The touchy issue of freedom of religion arises with police probes into any cultlike group or religious organization. The need is to maintain balance between public order and voluntary religious (or quasi-religious) activity. For that, police must walk a tightrope to avoid excessive intervention.

The Japan Times Weekly
May 24, 2003
(C) All rights reserved

      警視庁と福井、山梨、岡山、福岡各県警は14日、パナウェーブが虚偽の車両登録をした容疑で関連施設、車両を強制捜査し多数の証拠書類等を押収した。

      現在のところ、この団体についてはほとんど情報がない。警察当局は迅速に捜査を進めるべきである。地下鉄サリン事件などのオウム真理教関係の犯罪は、警察が早い段階で捜査をしていれば防止できたはずだ。

      パナウェーブについては、押収書類を分析すればその目的が判明する可能性があるが、憲法で保証されている信教の自由との関係で捜査はあくまでも慎重に進めるべきだ。

      今回の大規模捜査は容疑に比べ過剰とも思えるが、異常集団の犯罪行為を防止する警察当局の決意を示している。

      警察庁によれば、パナウェーブは初期のオウム真理教に似ているという。オウム真理教は当初、無害な異常集団と思われていたが、その判断は完全に誤っていた。

      パナウェーブは健康、環境に有害な電磁波の研究をしていると称している。電磁波の影響を防ぐためとして、白装束を着用し、自動車や沿道の樹木まで白布で被っている。1970年に設立されたパナウェーブは宗教団体として登録されていない。会員数は1,200人といわれ、多くは山中で集団生活をしている。本部、関連施設は福井県にある。

      カルト的集団、宗教団体についての捜査は、国民の安全と任意の宗教（または宗教的）活動の自由についてバランスを取る必要がある。警察は過剰な介入を避けるため、微妙な判断をしなければならない。