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to a better world. Some may interpret that constantly depicting Ikeda
'
s many
achievements is a way of glorifying authority that legitimises his
. While
this is not how I would interpret the deep-felt respect and admiration for
Ikeda, to quote Weber (1991: 79) on charismatic leadership, it is evident that
'
'
rule
'
Men [sic] do not obey him by virtue of tradition or statute, but because they
believe in him
. It is clear that were Ikeda to turn out to be a corrupt, auto-
cratic power-hungry
'
figure (how he is depicted in the tabloid news world), it
would most certainly severely undermine the trust that Soka Gakkai members
believe they can have in their organisation. It would also undermine the core
belief of upholding a better social world for all that drives the e
orts they
make to take collective action.
The e
s leadership based on his interpretation of Nichiren
Buddhism, which is for people to believe they have the power to direct
their own lives and the ability to contribute to their society, is evident. More
problematic is the belief that Ikeda is aware of everything that is going on in
the organisation and by extension the organisation
ect of Ikeda
'
s support for Komeito. This
is clearly impossible, given the size of Soka Gakkai. Ikeda implicitly questions
this belief when he repeatedly tells members to speak up about things they do
not agree with. Yet, this belief in his all-knowing awareness persists and seems
to work as a kind of
'
of reassurance for young people when in
doubt about certain organisational decisions, or indeed about decisions made
by Komeito that lack transparency. Young people reassure themselves that
Ikeda would have known about it and would have talked about it if something
were amiss. In the case discussed in this chapter, it meant that if Ikeda was not
speaking out directly against Komeito
'
safety net
'
s handling of the Iraq War, although
on the other hand he was always speaking out against war itself, 14 supporters
felt somewhat reassured that they could also trust Komeito to be trying its
best under very di
'
cult decision-making processes.
This way of trusting leaders may play out against the general socialisation
process in which people learn to steer away from initiative-taking (McVeigh
2002) through what some describe as the numbing process that passes for
education in Japan (Kingston 2004: 268). There is a jostling between this
general socialisation process and how young people see Ikeda as inspiring
them to do the opposite, in fact
-
to take action and to question things. How
this plays out at di
erent levels of the leadership chain may vary. Mika,
whom I quoted above, was an executive leader of Soka Gakkai. She had
spent her teenage years in the UK and she was often critical of the
'
Japanese
'
way of doing things. Once, when talking to her about Soka Gakkai members
'
great enthusiasm for Hamayotsu and the possibility of Hamayotsu becoming
the next leader of Komeito, Mika had suggested this to other executive leaders.
She had argued that they should make a suggestion to the board of directors
that many Soka Gakkai members would support Hamayotsu as the leader of
Komeito. It was not that people did not trust Kanzaki (the then head of
Komeito), but because there was talk about leadership change; why should
they, as supporters, not show that they preferred Hamayotsu. The answer
 
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