Religion, Soka Gakkai Buddhists and political participation - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 212

hierarchical, non-negotiable notions of social status and where social organi-
sation prioritises ideals of the ' social whole ' over individual needs, ideas and

capacities (cf. Ong 2005), the fit is not an easy one. While various typical neo-

Confucian cultural and political mores are still present in Japan (cf. Hendry
2003) and in Soka Gakkai, there has been an over-evaluation of the level of
structural power without investigating what goes on at the grassroots level.
Japan, and here in the form of a religious movement, has been represented as
if social life contains too much self-sacri cing and too little individualising.

While it is a truism that human beings cannot avoid some form of distortion
in representing the social reality of the

' other ' (Simmel 1971), it is also a

truism that structuralist objectivism tries to explain social behaviour from the

point of view of the observer

'

(Gledhill 2000: 139).
When we look at Japanese society from the angle of young Soka Gakkai
members who support Komeito, it adds a new dimension to the general picture
of a depoliticised youth culture and Japanese people as not replicating democ-
racy very well. In fact, vast numbers of young people appear to be committed
to participatory democracy as a way of furthering the common good. If we
regard secularisation to mean the ability to debate issues about a shared public
and social life without implicating religious doctrines, we here see an example
of how religion can be a potential ethical force in politics without necessarily
having a speci

'

cally religious presence despite it seemingly being a case to the
contrary. When we look at these young people

'

s political activities as the
result of being active in a form of civil society that engages in the public
sphere and debates about important issues (important in that they a

ect
everyone) it does tell us something about the ethical role that religion can
play in politics. The groups of young people in this topic are engaged in a rich
associational life with the objectives of the good society; their conversations
in the public sphere were about broader societal issues despite it being direc-
ted at the support for one party and could be constituted as less ' free ' in that

sense. Yet, these processes seem to be the very stu that makes democracy.

The tension in politics and religion highlights the historical force of
human societies
Still, having just outlined Soka Gakkai s support for Komeito as processes of

participatory democracy, how does it compare with apparently single-minded
e

'

ort to work for religious ideals? As the previous chapters showed, there is
no neat answer to this; a profound sense of creativity is there, but so are
dilemmas and contradictions. At the end of the day supporters make a choice,
and perhaps not always the right one. Yet, as did Nichiren, young Soka
Gakkai members reveal a new attitude toward politics from their religious
standpoint, an attitude that is inherently contentious because it stems from
deeply philosophical ideas. In Chapter 1 I discussed how Nichiren s political

idea contains ambivalence about religion becoming a resistance to an obsti-
nate establishment, or a principle for oppression of an opposite party or of a

'