Buddha v. Pollution

Like animated scarecrows in black robes and bamboo hats, the eight monks bend in prayer around a sacred fire. The smoke is lost in the black pall gushing from a nearby paper mill. Suddenly, the heftiest of the mendicants bellows in a throaty bass: "In the name of God, know that thou hast erred by desecrating this pure land, by acting more ferociously than a hungry tiger in devouring the lives of living beings. Curse be on thee, polluting industrialist! May God crack thine head to seven pieces and banish thee once and for all to inferno!"

Japan's big polluters are in big trouble. For four months, industries across the country have been blasted by a group of belligerent Buddhists who call themselves kogai higyoshu jusatsu kitosodan ("the prayerful band of monks dedicated to imprecating curse and death on polluting industrialists").

The prayerful band started its cursing crusade only after "nights of soul-searching" convinced its members that Japan's notoriously lax antipollution laws needed divine guidance. At first, the group was apprehensive. "I felt like an idiot, an impossible Buddhist Quixote in this age of technology," recalls Masaki Umehara. The public felt differently. To many Japanese, the picture of a solitary band of Buddhists silhouetted against smoke-belching factories suggested latter-day samurai.

Added Clout. While no industrialists have yet perished from the monks' verbal barbs, some have been shaken. "We want no curse on us--period," says an electric-power-company executive. Despite such grumbling, no one has legally attacked the cursers. "If any of the corporations concerned wanted to sue us," says one mendicant with a wry smile, "they would have to begin by establishing themselves as the polluters mentioned in our incantations." Tokyo Psychologist Kazuo Shimada explains the industrialists' nervousness: "We Japanese all have a tinge of mysticism in our blood and tend to be vulnerable in one way or another to such occultism."

Buoyed by their impact thus far, the group plans to expand its excoriation campaign next month. And last week Japan's Diet gave the curses added clout. In response to growing public rage, the upper house passed an unusually tough environmental package aimed at polluters who endanger human health. Those caught and convicted now face up to seven years in prison.

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