Ozawa and faiths

After Ozawa met with Japan Buddhist Federation President

Yukei Matsunaga and praised Buddhism. He said then that

‘‘European and U.S. societies with a (historical)

background of Christianity are bogged down,’’ and that

Islam is ‘‘better than Christianity but it is also

exclusive.’’

Ozawa specified about Christianity described as

‘‘exclusive and self-righteous’’, prompting the Japan

Confederation of Christian Churches to lodge a protest and

demand that the No. 2 leader of the ruling party withdraw

the remarks.

Controversy indeed for the believers.

Backpedaling, Ozawa tried to explain that he was merely

saying that the East and the West have different views,

and did not retract them.

‘‘I stated that the basic philosophy of religion and the

view of life are different (between East and West),’’

Ozawa said at a press conference Monday afternoon,

explaining that in his view the East considers humans as

part of the nature while the West believes that nature

exists for humans.