ODJ (Japan): Japanese Falun Gong follower deported after protest in Beijing

Dow Jones Commodities Service TOKYO, Jan. 4 (Kyodo) - A Japanese Falun Gong follower said Friday he was deported from China after staging a protest Tuesday in Beijing's Tiananmen Square against the Chinese government's ban on the group.

Hiroyoshi Sawa, a 27-year-old company worker from Kyoto, said at a press conference in Tokyo that he was forced to return home Wednesday via Shanghai after being detained and assaulted by Chinese security authorities.

Sawa said he unfurled a banner saying, " Falun Gong's teachings are good," and shouted the same message in Chinese at the square.

Security authorities then took him away for questioning and seized the books on Falun Gong he was carrying, Sawa said, adding he was questioned about his relationship with Chinese Falun Gong followers and detained overnight.

Sawa said he will continue his campaign to end the persecution of the group's followers.

According to sources close to the group, there are several thousand Falun Gong followers in Japan. Sawa's case marks the fourth time Japanese were deported from China for staging a protest at Tiananmen Square, they said.

Falun Gong promotes good health and morality [...] through meditation and special exercises.

The group's open conflict with the [Jiang Zemin] government began in April 1999, when thousands of adherents peacefully gathered at Zhongnanhai, the home of China's ruling elite, in central Beijing.

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