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religion have a long history and is the outcome of the dominance of institu-
tional conceptions of religion, which results in particular de
nitions of
'
religious behaviour. My intention here is not to dispose of the term
new religion by historicising its development (that would have to be the
objective of a separate volume), but I argue that we need to engage in a more
critical understanding of the conceptual tools with which we de
proper
'
ne the social
phenomenon under study. This is not a question of wanting to borrow uncri-
tically from a terminology of civil society versus new religions (in Japan); any
terminology is always the outcome of particular socio-historical contexts.
Instead, I want to examine some of the boundaries we draw that limit our
understanding of this religious group (and potentially others), as well as about
young people
s Japan.
Why would I want to use perspectives taken from ideas about
'
s political participation in today
'
'
in a cross-cultural analysis to, moreover, view a religious organisation? First,
in relation to the wider sense of the term, there is little literature, anthro-
pological or otherwise, about the existence of a public sphere in which one
million young people at the grassroots level are having conversations about
issues of wider public interest. There is no research on what those conversa-
tions are about, and where they take place. Therefore, second, and to use the term
in its more speci
'
civil society
c sense, research on new religious organisations has tended
to sway towards depicting somewhat deluded masses of Japanese people in
the grip of fundamentalist ideas, overpowered by controlling organisational
structures rather than as potentially socially concerned and aware citizens.
The existence of such an academic and more widely popular portrayal in
many ways contradicts the data gathered during my
fieldwork consisting of
first-hand observations, hundreds of conversations, and more than 80 inter-
views with young Soka Gakkai members who were supporting Komeito, with
Komeito politicians and with Soka Gakkai o
cials, over a period spanning
2003
11. The data presented in this topic call for a need to raise more critical
questions, at least when it comes to the case under study, but potentially more
broadly as well, about the more deceptive assumptions that accompany the
categorisation of
-
as a group of unhappy people desperately
clutching at a religious straw for salvation. I look at Soka Gakkai from the
viewpoint of its members who are active in society. Contrary to much public
opinion, these young people seem to represent a moderate voice of caution
about issues of wider public concern, and a personal commitment to address
such concerns. Third, this topic o
'
new religion
'
ers a critical perspective that explores the
conditions under which the normative ideals of civil society transpire, through
which associations, and through what channels democratic messages transmit
to the public sphere.
The Western concept of civil society, however, brings up a number of
caveats when applied to an essentially non-Western context. Wolf (1982)
records the e
that was introduced
to the colonised, and anthropology continues to scrutinise its own hypocrisy
to
ect of the European brand of
'
civilisation
'
'
take the cultural hegemony of the West as its object of inquiry
'
(Asad
 
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