A case of interpretation? - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 108

receive Komeito s sup-

port would only be of a political nature with no monetary, logistical or mili-
tary support forthcoming as long as the war continued. In return for that, the
LDP got the needed agreement from its junior coalition partner, and the USA
got its political backing from its long-term ally. As Toyama put it,

' s endorsement, he would have to promise that Japan '

Komeito
decided to support the Koizumi administration in its support for the US-led
invasion of Iraq

'

(interview, 18/11/2003). Yet, however much Komeito wanted
to prevent the war, students were asking what exactly Komeito was doing
then in supporting the Japanese government.
Achiko was a 20-year-old social science student voting for the second time
in the July 2004 House of Counsellors election. She was particularly interested
in Refugee Problems among the Kurds, which was the topic discussed by the
group she was leading in the UNRC. She had not approved of Komeito

'

s
stance on the war in Iraq, and as a result had consulted a leader in Soka
Gakkai about this. The leader told her that because Komeito lacked political
power to in

'

uence the outcome, they found themselves in this compromising
position. She was told that:

By increasing support for Komeito, the more political power they will
have, enabling them to have a better chance at upholding their position.
Therefore rather than withdrawing support for Komeito because one
disagrees with their handling of the Iraq War, one should increase one

'

s

election campaign e orts to increase their number of parliamentary seats

so they can be a bigger in

uence.

(conversation with Achiko, 01/06/2004)

Accordingly, there was some trust that Komeito had tried its best to circum-
vent the situation, however hopeless it had been. This was even echoed by
Tobi (introduced in Chapter 2) , who otherwise was highly critical of Komei-
to s handling of the Iraq War. I asked Tobi what he had told his friends when

he asked them to vote for Komeito, when he so strongly disagreed with
Komeito

'

' s handling of the Iraq War.

Of course among friends here within SU we discussed this issue and
raised our doubts about Komeito. There is the belief among my friends
outside SU that Komeito equals Soka Gakkai, and that every SU student
blindly supports Komeito. The issue of Iraq came up a lot amongst my
friends, and I would say I am against that. But before the election, I
would also talk about these two problems with the state of foreign diplo-
macy and internal problem of the operation of the government itself, and
within these shortcomings I would still vote for Komeito.
(conversation with Tobi, 06/12/2003)

This statement did not fit easily into a case of outside vs. inside (soto vs. uchi)

in the supposedly group-oriented culture of Japan as suggested by various