Introduction - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 8

as Soka Gakkai and Rissh - K - seikai, are active in a variety of peace and
development activities that are coordinated with the United Nations (UN) as
o cially registered non-governmental organisations (NGOs). However, it is also

their emphasis in other spheres on proselytising as a cause to achieve this-
worldly bene

ts, curing sickness, solving family disputes, and material prosperity
(Hardacre 1986; Reader and Tanabe 1998; Shimazono 2004), which make for
uneasy bed-fellows with other types of voluntary organisations.
People who belong to new religions may fit into other cultural ideals by making

' '

(Reader 2005: 440). This combination of an emphasis on practice and the cultural
ideal of self-transformation sits uneasily with the notion of

themselves into archetypal examples of the potential for self-transformation

as something
that is better left to the yearly worship of ancestors or feel-good community
religious festival that is part of the modern idea of religious syncretism. People in
Soka Gakkai may be perceived as

' religion '

or alarming in their insistence
on using religion as a life philosophy for potential change. Public opinion
polls (Ishii 2000) show that the majority of the Japanese do not think religious
organisations should maintain their tax-free privileges, a status granted based
on the idea that they are contributing to society. Mur - (2000) has shown how
the traditional print and broadcast media refrain from reporting any good
news about religion or even legal verdicts favourable to religion, and that this
undoubtedly in

' too serious '

uences public opinion, whatever the reality might be.
Hardacre (2003) notes that the lack of trust in new religious organisations
is primarily due to the politicisation of public opinion regarding religion, and
the emergence of so-called new-new religions, 6 of which one in particular, the
Aum Shinriky - , had fatal consequences for the public (Metraux 1999). The
Aum Shinriky - Tokyo Subway gas attack in 1995 killed 12 people while 5,000
required hospitalisation. This resulted in a tightening of government regulation
of all sectors of religion. This further a

ected public perception of new religions
and in particular of Soka Gakkai. Scholars have noted that the attempts to link
Aum Shinriky - with Soka Gakkai in the public mind were politically motivated
(LoBreglio 1997; Kisala 1997; Yuki 1997). Hardacre points out that:

contemporary public opinion about religion has emerged in tandem
with the history of religion

…

' s relations with media over the twentieth cen-

tury the tightening of state monitoring of religions and changed per-

ceptions that have generally a chilling e

…

…
could be seen as the repudiation of democratic reforms inaugurated by
the American-led Occupation

ect on the religious world

as part of an attempt to replace foreign-
dictated legal frameworks with measures more in keeping with Japan

…

' s

history.

(Hardacre 2003: 136)

Against this background, it is perhaps unsurprising that such popular reli-
gions have been shown little consideration when it comes to their social activism.
There has also been a lack of research on youth groups in new religions and