A case of interpretation? - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 106

technologically] so it is wrong not to help I want to believe,

as explained, that now, as the situation stands in Iraq, it is only the SDF that
can be sent to help Iraqi people. I think SDF is a force for good in Iraq

' , she continued, '

'

(conversation with Michi, 25/06/2004).
As frequently happened when I asked students about the Iraq War,
thoughts went to the dispatch of the SDF to Iraq and not to the Iraq invasion
itself. That the Japanese government of which Komeito was a junior partner
gave its political endorsement was hardly surprising. Few people in Japan
realistically expected them to oppose its long-term political ally and military
protector, the USA, although it seemed that many wished for Japan to decide
its own foreign policy more decisively. Some eight-to-ten months later Japan
had to decide if it was going to dispatch SDF personnel to Iraq, and with
that, the debates heated up. While opinions both re ected opposition and

resignation towards Japan s foreign policy, and concern about Japanese

people being killed if the SDF were to be sent, a signi

'

cant shift in opinion

also began to take place.
It was now late June and the SDF soldiers had been in Iraq for six months,
since January 2004. No Japanese soldiers had so far been killed. Fortunately,
there was no way of testing the political commentator Toshikawa Takao

s
prediction made at a press conference three days before the November 2003
Lower House election (see Fisker-Nielsen 2010) that if a signi

'

cant number of
SDF personnel were to be killed at any one time this would be the downfall
of the government. 2 Michi continued:

Secondly, my reason for supporting Komeito is that practically speaking,
we cannot all voice our opinion in the political realm; we need repre-
sentatives. I hope that Komeito politicians will be working for the people
in response to the ideals of their supporters. Other parties also do good
things, I think; I just can

t see them. If I were not a Soka Gakkai
member, I probably would not be a

'

liated with a party. But because
Soka Gakkai supports Komeito and Komeito is a good party as far as I
can see, I support it.

(conversation with Michi, 25/06/2004)

Since supporters believed that Komeito politicians were responding to its
supporters social ideals of working to create a fairer and more humane

society, they were naturally seen as a force for good. Yet Michi had pointed
her

'

finger at the perennial political problem, which makes politics so problematic
and untrustworthy ). How did she

then bridge the gap that always exists, the space of doubt that arises by never
quite knowing politicians

- lack of transparency ( ' As far as I can see '

inner intentions or the workings behind a wider
political context? In other words, the gap between pragmatic and normative
rules (Bailey 1969), on the one hand, and the gap created, as politicians never
live up fully to the expectations of their supporters. Michi trusted Komeito
politicians,

'

first, because she trusted her own intention of working for the