Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 62

to become the state religion. Despite Soka Gakkai s 1970 public statement,

still in 1994 the then president, Akiya Einosuke, had to recon

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rm this stance
when Komeito became part of the coalition government. In an interview in
the Buddhist-centric newspaper Ch - gai Nipp - , he stated:

The term (kokuritsu kaidan) is an expression

which came into use among followers of Nichiren Buddhism during the
Meiji era, under the in

' National Hall of Worship '

uence of the nationalism developing at that time.
There was a time when both Nichiren Sh - sh - and Soka Gakkai also used
the term. However, it is not an expression that Nichiren himself used,
and, as a matter of fact, it is contrary to the democratic Buddhist spirit of
Nichiren. Furthermore since this expression is used as evidence to back
up the misunderstanding that we seek the establishment of a state reli-
gion, we made clear our rejection of the use of the term in our 1970
resolutions. We have no intention of changing course on this matter in the
future.

(Ch - gai Nipp - , 1 January 1994)

In the 1960s the concept - butsumy - g - was used to support the idea of the
importance of having political candidates with an outlook based on Buddhist
ideals. This had caused fear about its intentions. In practical terms, this meant
promoting a comprehensive social welfare programme. What was termed
'

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(Ikeda 1967) was regarded by
Soka Gakkai as an alternative to the focus on national interest of the two
main parties, the LDP and the main opposition party, the JSP (see Stockwin
2006). Soka Gakkai stated that its ideal of

human socialism or Buddhist democracy

politics did not only
refer to a central position between left and right, but also to the objective of
making people

' Middle Way '

s welfare central to economic and social progress. Ikeda had
developed his own political philosophy in the 1960s, in which he con-
templated the merits and demerits of the current political options. He
expounded the idea that both positive and negative elements existed in sys-
tems of capitalism and socialism: capitalism was unsuitable because it focused
on the individual and neglected the social good, while socialism took care of
the collective but was unable to include individual initiatives and enterprise.
In light of this, Ikeda advocated that a political system needs to take care of
the greater social good and protect and help people in need, while opportu-
nities for people to ful

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l individual inventiveness has to be created to allow
for competition and excelling without fear of punishment (Ikeda 1965, 1967).
Ikeda s theory of

beauty, gain and good. In addition, following Toda, for Ikeda democratic
reforms initially brought about by the Allied Forces were essential to create a
change in political culture. With its central objective of creating a

' s ideas about human socialism have roots in Makiguchi '

' clean

government , as indicated by its name, Komeito was to challenge government

corruption through supporting individuals with a clean and ethical agenda
(not directed by money interests), something that had been at the top of

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