Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Mentioned in the last chapter, the UNRC is a student club originally pro-
posed by the founder of the university, Ikeda Daisaku. The number of members
varies slightly from year to year, but usually consists of around 100 Soka
University students who assemble twice a week to study and discuss interna-
tional issues ranging from environmental destruction to politics in Israel and
Palestine. Each week students take turns to present a given topic within a
smaller group setting. There are usually around six groups discussing di
erent
topics and people join according to topic of interest. Every year they elect a
student among them who is going to be the head of the UNRC that year.
Students, usually those who have been members in previous years, put
themselves forward if they wish to become a
, the person
responsible for one of the groups. Members of the UNRC also organise an
annual study trip to the UN Headquarters in New York for about 20 parti-
cipants, as well as a three-day study trip for everyone to somewhere in Japan
during the summer break. In light of these activities, the students were parti-
cularly interested in, and spent their spare time researching, various international
social and political
'
group leader
'
issues. They probably knew more about international
a
airs than other young Soka Gakkai members who were in other types of
clubs and therefore used their spare time on other things than studying
international issues.
From Kagoshima, Michi was a third-year student in the Department of
Education. She was planning to work as a primary school teacher after gra-
duation. When we met in the café above the student hall at Soka University,
she told me how much she enjoyed the UNRC activities, in which she had
been participating since the previous year. She felt that these activities broadened
her horizon about international a
airs and she had become aware of the serious
problems facing especially poorer countries around the world. The more she
studied the more she was
finding that the world was not a peaceful place at
all. Later we began talking about Komeito
s handling of the war in Iraq. She
had not been surprised by the criticism Komeito had received for remaining
in the coalition government because,
'
'
This has been the case almost since
Soka Gakkai
s inception. I think we are so used to being criticised in the
media, which tends to sensationalise news, that I am not surprised Komeito is
criticised. Komeito is thinking not only of people in Japan, but also the
world
'
(conversation with Michi, 25/06/2004).
While Komeito
'
is political agenda and philosophy certainly is one that
expounds inclusion, this was not exactly how the Komeito (then) Upper
House member Toyama Kiyohiko described the situation when he explained
that when it came to deciding whether or not to support the Koizumi gov-
ernment, his responsibility as a lawmaker lay primarily with the Japanese
people. By this, he meant that as a party in government they could no longer
simply act as an opposition force. As an opposition force, they would likely
have been against the war. As it was, Komeito was against the war, but they
also had to decide how to handle the situation practically. Michi tended to see this
in a positive, less pragmatic light:
'
'
Japan has the power to help [
[financially,
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