The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 12 declined to block a lower court order directing that a Japanese citizen with U.S. permanent resident status be extradited to Japan to face charges of vandalizing religious buildings.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied the emergency application in Kanayama v. Kowal without comment. Because she acted alone on the urgent matter, under Supreme Court rules, the unsuccessful applicant is allowed to present the application to another justice if he chooses.

The applicant is Masahide Kanayama, a lawful U.S. permanent resident and Japanese citizen who is also a Christian missionary. The respondent, Scott Kowal, is chief of the United States pretrial services for the Southern District of New York.

Sotomayor did not ask the U.S. Department of Justice, which represents Kowal, to respond to the application.

Kanayama, an obstetrician-gynecologist, had asked the Supreme Court to stay his extradition to Japan pending the filing and disposition of a petition for certiorari, or review, with the high court regarding the extradition order, according to his application filed with the Supreme Court on Nov. 26.

According to the application, Japan alleges that Kanayama carried out two acts of vandalism in 2015 by putting vegetable oil on wooden structures at the Narita Buddhist temple and lacquered surfaces located at the Katori Shinto shrine, two culturally significant sites. No repairs were carried out at either facility, and “neither suffered monetary damages.” Kanayama also produced scientific evidence at a federal district court hearing that the application of the oil “could not possibly have caused any permanent damage to the woodwork in question,” his application stated.

Japan requested Kanayama’s extradition in a diplomatic note in December 2016. In May 2017, the U.S. government filed a legal complaint in court seeking extradition in accordance with a treaty between Japan and the United States.

The federal district court ruled on Jan. 26, 2023, that Kanayama should be extradited to Japan. The U.S. Department of State authorized Kanayama’s surrender to Japan pursuant to the treaty by letter dated Oct. 16 of this year. On Nov. 18, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court, according to the application.

The application recounted that Kanayama regularly traveled between the United States and Japan participating in missionary activities through a Christian nonprofit organization he founded called the International Marketplace Ministry. Evidence was presented in court that he “anointed” Japanese shrines with oil for religious reasons.

The Sakura Summary Court in Japan issued warrants for the arrest of Kanayama for damaging a structure, an offense that could be punished with a year or more of incarceration.

In the application, Kanayama argued that the federal district court erred in its ruling in the case on dual criminality, a legal principle that applies to international prisoner transfers. Dual criminality requires that a person cannot be surrendered to another country unless the act concerned is a criminal offense in both the country seeking extradition and the country in which the person is located.

The application said that Kanayama could not be convicted of the New York offense of criminal mischief, which was deemed comparable to the vandalism statute under which he would be prosecuted in Japan, because there was no “quantifiable damage” or injury that lowered the value of the Japanese temple or shrine. Although the temple and shrine received estimates for repairs needed because vegetable oil was applied, both institutions failed to carry out repairs because the oil “dissipated on its own after some time.” This means the actual monetary damages to the structures were zero, the application stated, and if charged with criminal mischief for doing the same in New York, Kanayama could not have been convicted.

In the application, Kanayama argued he would face irreparable harm if surrendered and prosecuted in Japan. He suffers health conditions such as malignant hypertension, diabetes, and his life “critically depends on uninterrupted access to his medications.”

He also argued that his medical practice benefits U.S. society because he has an innovative treatment for endometriosis, a debilitating condition that affects many women.

It is unclear when Kanayama intends to file a petition with the Supreme Court seeking review of the extradition order, as he vowed to do in the application.

The Epoch Times reached out to Kanayama’s attorney in New York and the Department of Justice for comment. No replies were received by publication time.