Aspiration for the good society - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 98

erence between the Minshut -
leader, Kan, and the Komeito head, Kanzaki: why should Kanzaki not resign
if Kan had been forced to do so? The MP explained that Kan

Then there was a question about the di

' s situation was

di s

resignation; rather there was dissatisfaction within Minshut - over the agree-
ment Kan had made with the LDP and Komeito to hold talks on the uni

erent because it was not only the non-payment problem that had caused Kan '

cation
of the various sections of the pension scheme (ichigenka), some regarding it
giving in too much to the ruling bloc. Then someone made a comment about
some 50% of the general population being non-payers themselves, to which
the MP explained that it was about 38% and that getting people to pay into
the pension scheme was a part of the reforms that needed to take place.
Moreover, this reform period would continue into the next year with a focus
on reforming the nursing and medical systems. The YWD leader chipped in,
noting that also there was a di

erence between Kan and Kanzaki in that

Kanzaki s failure to pay had happened some 18 years earlier (when it was in

fact not yet compulsory to pay into the system). That was followed by a
question about the ichigenka (the uni

'

cation of the pension system), which
was strongly advocated by Minshut - , as presenting the solution to the pension
crisis. The MP explained that one of the central problems was the system of
the self-employed. A further problem was how to unify the k - seinenkin (social
security pension), which companies pay into and which commences when one
starts working, and the kokuminnenkin (national pension), which individuals
pay into. Thus, problems with the system were in need of further discussion
since, according to him, the uni

cation of the system was not enough to deal

with the huge de cit. He ended with the usual promise that Komeito would

continue its focus on reform.
As indicated by Hiromi, most people became reconciled to the fact that, for
the few leading politicians in Komeito who had failed to pay, this constituted
only a few months and seemed at least partly related to the system itself
rather than deliberate attempts at misleading the public. Amidst the goal of
achieving 10 million votes for Komeito, and videos that demonstrated the
greatness of Komeito

s recent achievements, although apologising for its latest
pension-payment slip-ups, continuing to pursue the min -

'

issue seemed, as did

the issue over Iraq, unproductive.
Such political scandals greatly a ect the trust in politicians and in the

political process. While the non-payment problem undermined trust in politics
in general, it meant di

erent things for di erent parties. From an outsider ' s

point of view, Soka Gakkai members continued support for Komeito was inter-

preted as the typical kind of unthinking support for a political party. Many
LDP politicians refused to disclose their pension records, saying that it was a
private matter, which was more simply seen as yet another example of

'

' poli-

s min - problem, despite it being
relatively minor in comparison with the other major parties and its transpar-
ency much greater as all their politicians disclosed their records, meant that it
was di

tics as usual ' . On the other hand, Komeito '

cult to get away from the idea that religious motivation is somewhat