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Japanese Politics 101: Soka Gakkai

With its massive membership base in Japan, ever expanding presence in the west, and political ties to the Komeito, Soka Gakkai plays an important role in Japanese politics and modern society. Devout followers, longtime leadership, and even their own universities abroad are but some of the special traits that make SGI a force to be reckoned with. Find out about all of this and more on today's episode of Japanese Politics 101! Subscribe to the Langley Esquire YouTube channel for more weekly videos!    / langleyesquire   To learn more about Langley Esquire, visit our website: http://www.langleyesquire.com Access the full transcript at www.langleyesquire.com/japanese-politics-101-soka-gakkai -- Transcript: Timothy: Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Japanese Politics 101. In Japanese Politics 101, we discuss certain components that make up what we call "Japanese Politics". Today's episode focuses on Soka Gakkai: it is a sect of the Buddhist religion here invJapan. Before we get into the issue, please don't forget to hit like, also share and subscribe to our video channel. Proliferate it with your friends. Michael, Soka Gakkai: we're a little bit reluctant to get into this issue, aren't we? Michael: There's a lot of mystery and a lot of bad press that has gone on about the Soka Gakkai. We've discussed them a little bit as in regards to the LDP's main partner since basically the year 2000, the last 18 years. The Komeito and the Soka Gakkai are ostensibly different creatures, but everybody is pretty clear that the Komeito Party is basically the front, the face, of the Soka Gakkai, which is a religious organization, a religious corporation here in japan. It is the largest one by far. Timothy: We have to somehow couch our words a little bit because the Soka Gakkai is very protective of its image. Their headquarters are not very far from where we are located here! Michael: Yeah, it is in Shinanomachiis Xi, it's very close by and you go there and you say "wow, there are all these Romanian flags around here!" Then, you say "no, that's the flag of the Soka Gakkai." Soka Gakkai is a Buddhist study group that was established in the 1930s by Nichiren Buddhists. Now, Nichiren Buddhism is an indigenous form of Buddhism of Japan, established in the 13th century by a monk named Nichiren, who felt that the most important acts were two: one was the reverence for the Lotus Sutra (in fact, most people knows Soka Gakkai from the chanting that is done in the name of the the Lotus Sutra). The chant goes "Myoho-renge-kyo", meaning "all hail this Lotus Sutra". You say that repeatedly in this chanting, puting you into a religious state. There's drumming and all sorts of things going on. The chanting is that aspect. So, the Lotus Sutra is the centrality of the religious aspect. The other aspect of it is patriotism. It is a highly patriotic from the very origins, very Japanese oriented religious tradition. Which is kind of ironic because Soka Gakkai is by far the most internationalized religious organization here in Japan and certainly has, especially in the United States, the only Buddhist member of the US congress. It is a Soka Gakkai international member. So, it is spread throughout the world by missionaries who have used it in order to appeal or entice the appeal of what is otherwise a very secretive and mysterious religious organization, that is fearsome, not only because of its mystery, but because of its size. Timothy: Well, a couple of the precepts that are important or characterize Soka Gakkai are the duty to proselytize and also to tithe. Michael: There is the financial aspects, which again are entirely legal, but nevertheless are for many Japanese, for whom the ties to religion are relatively loose (they may be a member of the Jodo Shinshu, of an Animist sect or they may even be Christians-- a very small number of them. But, the intensity of the interaction that the Soka Gakkai has within its religious community is a bit weird, at least in modern Japanese times: especially, post-Meiji. Indeed, it was in its original form seen as an enemy of the state and it was outlawed; its leaders were arrested, under the Peace Preservation Law. They denied the divinity of the Emperor: sedition. The founder died in prison, the movement was broken by the dictatorial state that existed prior to 1945 and that's part of the modern Soka Gakkai mythology: it survived and managed then under US occupation, and then in the post-war era, to suddenly flower. That struggle against the dictatorial regime is one of the really interesting aspects of the interaction that the Komeito has with the LDP today, especially the LDP of the grandson of a war criminal, Abe Shinzo. These extreme right-wing, if you want elements of Japanese politics, are now allied with the victims or at least the descendants of the victims of the Peace Preservation Law and the previous Meiji dictatorial state. This has always been just a source of dissonance [...]