Introduction - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 33

position as a party that had come to see itself as something that changes
politics from within. I discuss how it has been successful in a number of ways
in this regard that are not usually accounted for, but also how its defeat in
this election caused supporters to re

ect on its participation in an old political
system that voters were so fed-up with. While Komeito was having to rethink
its roots and reposition itself in the new power structure after 2009, it has
been surprisingly consistent, while perhaps not bold enough to stand up for
more of its goals. The new political leadership of Komeito may epitomise
what has been at the core of the party all along, and the future as one of
further progressiveness, as became clear by the time of the Upper House
election in July 2010.
In the last chapter I suggest that young people in this topic represent, per-
haps paradoxically, their way to ' depoliticise ' a hierarchically structured

Japanese society dominated by (Bellah et al. 1985: 5). There

is an attempt to re-imagine the political away from the Machiavellian dis-
course, namely the idea that self-interest has to be the overriding organising
principle of society.

' political values '

, as the ability to debate issues about
shared public and social life without implicating religious doctrines, is parti-
cularly important to these young religious adherents. Their own religious
philosophy makes this possible while simultaneously remaining the motiva-
tion behind their active concern with wider public issues. I discuss how
despite, or rather because of, their obvious religious a

' Secularisation '

liation, these young

'

people s political ethics are without a denominational religious presence. I

argue that this group of young people indicates that there is a better under-
standing of politics and a greater commitment to engage with wider societal
concerns than studies of Japan and Japanese politics have so far shown. I
discuss how their religious philosophy, practice and organisation can, para-
doxically, act as a force for secularisation and democratisation. As Chapter 5
indicates, we need to rethink the modern dicta of separation between religion
and politics, while recognising that the individual, and not the structure, is the
location of contention.