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he continued to be against the way Komeito had handled the Iraq War issue.
Although he supported the party, he was being selective in his canvassing
activities.
Some people will go home to their hometown next weekend and the following
weekend to speak with friends to get them to vote. I do not go that far.
But I will call people from my middle school years. I went to Soka High
School, so presumably I don
'
t need to call them to get them to vote
(laughs). It is di
cult. We have many discussions about politics since
most of my friends from that time are now university students, but it is
di
cult to get them to agree to support Komeito.
(conversation with Tobi, 23/06/2004)
As other people had arrived, we continued to talk about the pension reforms
and, just as had many other people, they found it hard to know the pros and cons
of the reforms they were supposed to support. One thing Tobi did not like
was
. As often before, they observed
the results but the deliberations about the pros and cons were not visible.
After I had
'
the lack of discussion about the issues
'
finished lunch with them, I went to meet Taka in the Soka
University library. He started straight away to talk about Komeito and his
reasons for supporting the party. Although only 19 and not yet eligible to
vote, Taka had a keen interest in politics. He had been the captain of the
basketball team in high school. Taka had applied to the national university in
his area, but had failed the entrance examination. He therefore decided to
come to SU where he had passed the examination; he was now studying
chemistry. Before entering the university he had not been a very keen Soka
Gakkai member in the sense that he did not chant regularly or study either
Nichiren
'
s or Ikeda
'
s writings. Since entering SU that had changed because,
'
There are so many inspiring people around
'
, that he
'
Wouldn
'
t mind having
[Soka Gakkai] meetings every day
. He currently attended about three-to-four
meetings a week. Why did he like Komeito then?
'
Because they are able to
realise their promises. They wrote a manifesto of 100 proposals and have
already realised 31 of them.
'
Komeito was certainly promoting itself as a
party that had the power to deliver on its promises (manifesto jitsugenryoku
mo number 1). He mentioned proudly the legislation enacted to increase
'
financial help for families with children, which was a typical welfare issue that
a number of the young supporters mentioned they were in favour of although
they did not have children themselves yet. Although Taka said he would not
ask his friends to vote for Komeito because he was under 20, 5 he really
wanted to talk about politics with his friends. However, he found that most of
them were not interested at all,
t feel that their one vote
counts anyway and that politics has nothing to do with them
'
Because they don
'
. According to
Taka, Komeito was urging people to overcome this feeling of apathy and
engage with politics and politicians. He believed that Komeito was a party for
ordinary people. This was certainly the rhetoric Komeito continuously used in
'
 
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