The December 9th issue of Jinja Shinpō reported on a special meeting of the Jinja Honchō Board of Directors, which was held on November 29th to discuss the disputed presidency.
Jinja Honchō’s position on the court decision and the dispute was explained, and they reported that they had asked Revd Ashihara about compensation for the costs to Jinja Honchō, his moral responsibility, the background to his application to change the registered president, and his interpretation of the court decision. They also explained his answers in detail (but the article does not). They then reported that a letter had been sent (by parties unnamed) to various places (the article is vague — Jinjachō, perhaps, as well as Jinja Honchō) asking for a extraordinary meeting of the Oversight Council to be called.
Revd Tanaka said that he had explained that the Board had to go along with the decision of the Supreme Court, but if people still didn’t agree there was no choice but to hold a vote, and that they should do that after further discussions at the next meeting of the board. (That meeting was due to happen yesterday, but it, obviously, hasn’t been reported yet.)
There were also a lot of conflicting statements, which are reported without attribution. These were just rehashing earlier opinions on both sides, although someone did explicitly ask whether there was any sort of penalty if the chairman simply refused to appoint the president voted for by the board. (As far as I can see from the regulations, the answer is “no”, which is part of the reason they have a stalemate.)
The chairman was not present for this meeting. This is odd, because he is supposed to convene it, and I assume he was ill or double-booked. It did lead at least one director to query whether this meeting had been legally convened, and the secretariat had to show his “electronic decision”. That probably means an email, which is why I assume he was not deliberately boycotting the meeting. That, and my indefeasible optimism.
Things were, then, still deadlocked.
It’s a really good thing that this is having almost no effect on the day-to-day operations of anything in the Shinto world.
Is the new weed smoking ban going to harm Shimenawa production?
No, for two reasons.
First, shimënawa are normally made of rice straw these days, not hemp.
Second, the changes to the law are intended to make it easier to grow low-THC hemp for industrial and ritual purposes. Shinto groups have been pushing quite hard for this, in close cooperation with lawmakers and the relevant government departments. Of course, it remains to be seen just how effective the changes are in this respect, but people who are in the hemp business now think they will be helpful, so there are grounds for optimism.