A Democratic Party of Japan member, who once called Christianity a “self-righteous religion,” announced his candidacy for his party’s top post yesterday.

Ichiro Ozawa will contest current party leader, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, for the position during an election scheduled for Sept. 14.

Ozawa is no newcomer to controversy.

He raised the ire of Christian leaders last year, when he was party secretary-general, over remarks he made about the religion.

“I think that Christian civilization is extremely exclusive, that it’s a self-righteous religion,” Ozawa told reporters on Nov. 10, 2009.

“All you need to know about civilizations rooted in exclusive Christianity can be learned from the stagnating societies in Europe and America,” he said, after a meeting with Yukei Matsunaga, then-president of the Japan Buddhist Federation and head priest of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism.

The Japan Confederation of Christian Churches called for a retraction of the statement the next day.

The group comprises the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan; Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan; and various Protestant Churches.

About a month later, representatives of the National Christian Council in Japan and the Catholic bishops’ conference met with Ozawa, who defended his statement.

“I wasn’t saying [Christianity] is good or bad as a religion. It was about how the Orient is different from Europe and America,” he said.

Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada of Tokyo, however, took Ozawa’s comments in stride.

“Mr Ozawa is neither a believer nor a scholar of Christianity,” he said during an interview earlier this year. “I think his understanding of Christianity is pretty indicative of that of your average Japanese person’s. It means our practice of our faith isn’t as good as it should be.”

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