Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 63

Toda ed with a social

movement that they saw as aiming to improve society; it became a matter of
common sense to support a political party that aimed at better welfare, better
education, a government free of corruption, and protection of the environ-
ment and individuals. The term - butsumy - g - has long been abandoned,
but Nichiren Buddhism, as interpreted by Soka Gakkai, continues to provide
the philosophical foundation for Komeito

' s agenda. In other words, Soka Gakkai members identi

' s political agenda and for suppor-

ters erences

apparent as second- and third-generation Soka Gakkai members have grown
up in di

' political motivation, although there are also generational di

erent economic and social circumstances compared to their parents '

generation.

A socially progressive political agenda

Arguably, there are four major themes that become prominent in Komeito ' s

1970s political agenda. Buddhist democracy was depicted as ' Middle of the

Road Reformism that involved emphasising human well-being and develop-

ment beyond issues of ideology, class and the state. Although stressing the
need to view the individual in the context of totality of society instead of a part
of a group structure, such as class, there was no radical call for overturning the
existing structures. The focus was on a gradual approach to reform. Second,
humanitarian socialism meant a gradual nationalisation of key manufacturing
and energy industries. This included the development of detailed economic
guidelines such as a market mechanism, distribution of wealth, anti-pollution
measures, educational aid, economic and technical assistance to smaller
companies and international co-operation. A third theme was peace based on
internationalism, which meant favouring Japan

'

s constitutional neutrality of
self-determination for all nations and the Five Principles of Peace that
provided for goodwill toward all, while denying military alliance with any.
The party also advocated and took various initiatives to reinforce the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). 17 Accordingly, Komeito came out in
favour of various peace treaties and was initially in favour of the abroga-
tion of the Japan

'

- US Security Alliance. 18 In the 1980s Komeito ' s position on

the alliance with the USA, however, changed, which re ected Cold War

tensions and a general shift in the political climate of that period. However,
any real debates about constitutional changes did not become part of wider
public discourse until the 2000s (as discussed in Chapter 3 ) . 19 Here Komeito
can be seen to uphold the principles of Article 9, which denies Japan the
right to collective self-defence, while advocating additional provisions that
would allow the Self-Defence Forces to be used for peacekeeping and
humanitarian reconstruction overseas, something that was advocated from
the early 1990s onwards. Fourth, Komeito

s emphasis on upholding the Con-
stitution of Japan was its unequivocal focus on protection of fundamental
human rights of freedom of belief, freedom of assembly and freedom of
expression.

'