Orlando Bloom is a member of Soka Gakkai
That’s just one of the facts about power Japanese religious group Soka Gakkai that I found in a special Q&A feature in today’s Japan Times. I’ve seen unconfirmed allegations in the past that the Japan Times may be under the influence of Soka Gakkai, but today’s article is pretty open about some of criticism facing the religious organization.
One interesting piece of information from the article is that their official newspaper beats out Mainichi in overall subscription numbers:
With its circulation of 5.5 million, it is Japan’s third-largest daily, after the Yomiuri Shimbun’s 10.02 million and the Asahi Shimbun’s 8.04 million. It does not own printing equipment and thus pays major newspaper publishers for its press runs.
Critics say Soka Gakkai’s aim is to be a customer of major newspapers to dissuade them from generating negative press. Newspaper publishers have many customers as advertisers, but Soka Gakkai is arguably the only one that helps them make effective use of their expensive presses.
Subscription sales and other fundraising activities have allowed Soka Gakkai to amass about 500 billion yen in assets. In addition to owning a lot of property in Japan, the organization has many facilities abroad, including a new “nonsectarian” university it built in California.
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