Osaka, Japan: People Learn the Falun Gong Exercises at a Local Event

(Minghui.org) Practitioners introduced Falun Gong at a local celebration held in Osaka's North District on January 14, 2023. They demonstrated the five sets of exercises on stage, and many audience members followed along. People told practitioners they felt energy from doing the exercises.

Falun Gong practitioners set up a booth to introduce the practice at an annual celebration held in North District, Osaka, on January 14, 2023.

Audience members learn about Falun Gong

Falun Gong practitioners’ waist drum performs.

The North District Citizen Center has been providing a free classroom for Falun Gong practitioners to teach the exercises since 2010. Many people have learned and come across Falun Gong there.

Visitors started approaching the Falun Gong booth early in the morning of January 14. Some carefully read the display boards introducing the practice and the ongoing persecution in China. Some people joined an origami class to make paper lotus flowers, and many people inquired about Falun Gong.

The North District of Osaka City is the political, economic, and cultural center of Osaka City. The annual event was suspended for three years due to COVID-19 and finally resumed this year. All kinds of cultural and sports-loving groups participated in this year's event. Falun Gong was one of the groups.

Audience members learn the Falun Gong exercises by following along with the demonstration on stage

Staff at nearby booths learn the Falun Gong exercises as practitioners demonstrate them on stage.

Staff at nearby booths also learned the exercises by following along with practitioners’ demonstrations on stage. A staff member excitedly said that she felt something spinning between her hands while doing the exercises. Others said they felt energy during the exercises, and they felt warm.

High school student Genta Hatanaka said that he didn’t know about Falun Gong before, but after reading the display boards at the booth he knew that Falun Gong practitioners who follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are persecuted in China. He was shocked to learn that the organs of Falun Gong practitioners are harvested while they are still alive. He said he would search online for more information about Falun Gong.

Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why is the CCP persecuting it?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and have learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, he issued an order to eradicate the practice.

Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 24 years. The actual number is believed to be much higher. Countless practitioners have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply China’s organ transplant industry.