Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
were speci
c policies that followed this objective, but
first politicians themselves
had to be the epitome of
. Politicians needed to reform themselves,
not only the political system. Komeito politicians were unforgiving towards the
last two successive leaders of Minshut
-
, Hatoyama and Ozawa, whom they
criticised relentlessly in the weeks leading up to the election of 2009 for their
money scandals. Ozawa had had to stand down for the involvement of his
secretary in covering up illegal political donations made from a construction
company and failure to declare in his political funds report 400 million yen
used to purchase a Tokyo land plot in 2004. Hatoyama was embroiled in
donating funds under false names
'
cleanliness
'
even under names of people who had
passed away; after the election, it became known that he had received close to
one billion yen from his mother, apparently unbeknownst to him, which was
his explanation for not declaring it. In the media there was very little focus on
Hatoyama
-
s rather implausible explanations; instead, he was hailed as the
new leader of Japan, almost to the extent of being the new Barack Obama. In
return for Komeito
'
s criticism, Minshut
-
made statements to the e
'
ect that
politicians should not be representative of speci
c religious groups.
, in relation to politics and money, was a fundamental issue for
supporters of Komeito because it directly related to the honesty of a politi-
cian. The
'
Clean
'
first requirement of a Komeito politician was to be honest. Komeito
could claim with relative con
dence that its politicians were
'
clean
'
and that
'
'
the party stood for clean government. The term
seiketsu
implied the di
cult
'
aspect of correcting the way political funds are used to serve one
s own pur-
pose and curtailing administrative waste. Moreover, cleaning up politics
included proposing banning donations by business groups to political parties.
This was not a di
cult position to take for Komeito, as a party that had
always received funds primarily from individual donations. As ever, the
appeal was to policies and to what kind of people Komeito politicians were.
This was no more apparent than among the young people campaigning for
Komeito in Okinawa in 2009, although a di
cult campaign in the rising
euphoria for Minshut
-
.
I went to Okinawa to see how young people campaigned for the party there.
Komeito supporters in Okinawa are very successful at garnering votes for
Komeito. Generally, 17%
18% of voters vote for Komeito in the proportional
representation compared to the national average of around 13%. This is the
case even as Soka Gakkai members in Okinawa make up less than 2% of the
population (some 20,000) compared to around 8%
-
9% of the national aver-
age. Moreover, as elsewhere, only about half of Soka Gakkai members are
actively canvassing for the party. Still, Komeito received around 120,000 votes
in the proportional representation in 2009, 17.9% of the total votes cast.
Okinawa has its own unique history and place within Japan. It was the last
of the territories to be incorporated within the modern Japanese state, in
-
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