FARMINGTON – A study of religion and violence will bring a Japanese scholar to the University of Maine at Farmington on Wednesday.

Tatsuo Murakami from Sophia University in Tokyo will give a presentation, “Religion and Violence in Contemporary Japan: Some Thoughts on the 1995 Sarin Gas Attack on the Toyko Subway,” at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Lincoln Auditorium on campus. The program is free and open to the public.

He’s the fourth speaker this year brought to the campus to explore the relationship of religion and violence by the Religion and Philosophy Club at the university, said club advisor Jennifer Reid on Monday.

When people think of contemporary Japan, the problem of religious violence does not immediately come to mind, Reid stated in a news release.

Members of a new Japanese religion, Aum Shimrikyo, were cited in the release of sarin gas in a Tokyo subway in 1995. Religion was their primary motive, she said.

For the Japanese, the incident changed the image of religion and started discussions about the nature of the study of religion, she added.

Murakami will briefly describe the incident and the impact on Japanese society in general and on Japanese religious scholars in particular, she said.

Reid and Murakami are involved in academic projects through the Niwano Peace Foundation, she said. She met him while he was studying for a doctoral degree in the United States.

In April, the Religion and Philosophy Club will sponsor a speaker who will address the pre-civil rights’ role of black and white women in 1960s churches, she said.