Soka Gakkai’s Support of Komeito
Several of the most viewed videos on YouTube Japan today are clips from ATV’s election night coverage. Among them is a clip of journalist Akira Ikegami talking about the links between the Komeito party and the Soka Gakkai religious sect:
One of the few election victories for the Komeito was for Makoto Nishida in Saitama prefecture. As the clip shows, the Komeito focused a lot of its efforts on Saitama. Crowds of excited people, who are identified as members of Soka Gakkai, are shown listening to speeches by Nishida. In an interview with Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi, Ikegami suggests that Komeito will not cooperate with the DPJ because its Soka Gakkai supporters oppose the DPJ. Yamaguchi replies with the standard unconvincing response : Komeito is a political organization, not a religious organization. Apparently it’s pretty rare to see such a straightforward depiction of Komeito as a religion-based political party, so the video received many views and a lot of comments supporting Ikegami.
On an afternoon during the official campaigning period for this election, I happened to walk by a station exit where a candidate was giving a speech. There was a really big crowd of people gathered around watching, and they seem unnaturally enthusiastic about a standard dull political campaign speech. The man giving the speech wasn’t particularly famous or important, yet the crowd was reacting like he was a rock star. It was unlike any such public speech I’d seen in Japan, and I’ve seen some by famous political big shots. When I finally saw the banners and signs identifying him as a Komeito candidate, I understood what was going on. The crowd was obviously made up of Soka Gakkai members, who were supporting the Komeito party as part of their religious beliefs.
It’s not just limited to support at public speeches. I’ve seen Komeito supporters go to tables inside family restaurants and ask other customers to vote for their party in the election, something that would make people uncomfortable in almost any country. The grassroots activities of Komeito’s supporters resemble the acts of fanatical religious missionaries, and frankly it makes it hard for me to see the “political” party’s existence as a good thing. While the Komeito’s current official party platform doesn’t contain anything about turning Japan into a theocracy, it is worrisome to see a party that relies so heavily on the support of a single religious sect and its believers.
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