Religious group hid 'love hotel' income

A religious corporation that operates "love hotels" concealed 1.4 billion yen in income over seven years through February 2008 as tax-exempt donations from amorous couples, sources said.

The Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Taxation Bureau has ordered Uchu Shinri Gakkai (Space truth academic society) to pay 300 million yen in back taxes and penalties.

Uchu Shinri Gakkai, based in Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture, has filed an objection to the order.

"We actually send money to needy children in the country. We'll fight the tax authorities," said the 46-year-old president of a company in Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture, that processes and sells mushrooms and vegetables.

The love hotels are apparently run by a 71-year-old former president of the company.

Uchu Shinri Gakkai appears to be a religious organization in name only. The vegetable company apparently used the name of Uchu Shinri Gakkai to win tax breaks offered to religious groups, including tax exemptions on donations.

The address of Uchu Shinri Gakkai's main office is an apartment unit in a 10-story building in Tadotsu. There were no signs that the apartment was a place of religion, nor were any followers around. A notice hanging on the doorknob was from Shikoku Electric Power Co., saying it had canceled the contract for electricity.

Neighbors said they have not seen anyone entering the apartment for the past 20 years or so.

At least 23 love hotels belonging to the same group are operating in Nagano, Shizuoka, Gifu, Gunma and Niigata prefectures.

A Buddhist statue and a signboard of Uchu Shinri Gakkai were at the entrance of one of the love hotels in Nagano. Notices on the walls in a guestroom said, "Please make an offering for underprivileged children of the world" and "So we can save as many young lives as possible."

The hotel apparently reported about 60 percent of its income from guests as taxable sales and the remainder as donations from those guests.

A front-desk clerk at the Nagano hotel said 2,000 yen of the 5,500 yen for an overnight stay is treated as an offering.

The tax bureau determined that Uchu Shinri Gakkai evaded corporate tax payments by reporting only part of the income from hotels in its tax returns, the sources said.

Uchu Shinri Gakkai, established in 1983, is believed to have been dormant until around 1994.

The tax bureau decided the responsibility for the tax reports lies with Uchu Shinri Gakkai because it owns most of the land and buildings of the love hotels, and the hotels carry the signboard of the religious organization, the sources said.

According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 182,868 religious corporations were registered in Japan as of the end of 2006.

Some have become inactive for a number of reasons, including lack of a successor and a decline in the number of followers. Sales of such religious groups fetch high prices because they are given tax breaks and minimal interference by authorities due to guarantees of freedom of religion.(IHT/Asahi: June 10,2009)