Sex case haunts Japan religious leader

Asia Times/June 25, 1996 By Bradley MartinThe leader of eight million Japanese families which adhere to the Soka Gakkai offshoot of Buddhism likes to be called the most powerful man in the country.

Not so welcome to Daisaku Ikeda and his followers are recurrent charges that power has corrupted him, as he has bent the doctrines of the faith to craft a personality cult in which his wish is the command of followers - whether at the ballot box or in the boudoir.

Ikeda has done more than anyone in the post-war era to inject religion into the country's politics. His organization's get-out-the-vote clout strikes fear into the hearts of opponents - to the extent he has become the chief bogeyman of the Liberal Democratic Party and its partners in the ruling coalition.

But the tough-talking, 68-year-old pacifist, a big power behind the scenes in the opposition New Frontier Party or Shinshin-to, can handle the slings and arrows from fellow politicians. The attacks that really sting - and get the Soka Gakkai public relations apparatus humming - are accusations of sexual peccadilloes, perhaps because they appear threatening to what is widely seen as a more or less open campaign to win him a Nobel Peace Prize.

The latest such charge comes from a former high-ranking follower, Nobuko Nobuhira, who has filed a civil lawsuit claiming that the "eternal master", as some followers have called him, raped her brutally not once but three times - in 1973, 1983 and 1991 - while she worked as an unpaid Soka Gakkai local chief in Hakodate, Hokkaido.

Ikeda was unavailable for comment but Soka Gakkai spokespersons vigorously denied the charge and noted that Nobuhira, in the 23 years since the first alleged rape, had never brought a criminal charge. Her civil suit, they argued, was a media stunt by a disaffected ex-member who had been kicked out, a ploy to avoid a quick resolution of the case and thus prolong the feeding of scandalous anti-Ikeda tidbits to the tabloid press.

"Without police investigation, the complainant can say anything she wants to in court, including fabricated 'testimony' and 'evidence'," said a Soka Gakkai spokesman.

The 69-year-old housewife at a press conference on Monday acknowledged that a major purpose of her suit was to let the public know "what kind of a human being Mr Ikeda really is". Her lawyer explained that they had filed a civil suit in order to retain control of the case - a criminal case would be handled by public prosecutors - and to avoid the humiliation of Nobuhira being grilled and put through graphic crime-scene re-enactments by the police.

Mrs Nobuhira's accounts of the alleged rapes in the legal complaint and at the press conference were fairly graphic themselves. She told how Ikeda had visited Hakodate in June 1973 and she had been in charge of all preparations for his visit. She was bending over making up his bedding on the straw-mat floor when Ikeda attacked her from behind, knocked her face-down on to the bedding and raped her, she said. Soon after that, she said, he started referring to her when he saw her as "Nigo-san" (my mistress).

A little over 10 years later, on the same premises, he raped her again. Another eight years passed before the third alleged attack - again at the Hakodate training center.

Mrs Nobuhira was asked why, after the first and second alleged rapes, she stayed on, not only as a member of Soka Gakkai but in a position that would involve her deeply in providing hospitality to Ikeda during his visits.

She replied that she had built the local organization and she was a strong believer in the Nichiren-sect Buddhist teachings that the lay group Sokka Gakkai espoused. It would have looked strange if she had stepped down, and she feared she would end up shamed by having to tell her husband and others what Ikeda had done to her. By the time of the third alleged rape, she said, she mistakenly assumed she was out of danger on account of her age.

Soka Gakkai and Ikeda often have found themselves in public disputes. Ikeda sued the former editor of a monthly magazine for libel after the magazine in 1976 printed articles about intimate affairs he had allegedly had with female Soka Gakkai members. The editor drew a 10-month prison sentence before the Supreme Court ordered a retrial.

There are other issues as well. Some former members of the group have complained of campaigns of intimidation to keep members from leaving. A group of those dissidents allied several years ago with priests of the Nichiren sect who excommunicated the entire membership of Soka Gakkai.

Soka Gakkai spokespersons described the Nichiren priests as a sybaritic lot who inherited their temples from their fathers and grandfathers, drove sports cars, dined with geisha and insisted that priestly intervention - at a price - was necessary for spiritual salvation. Soka Gakkai argues that laypersons can find their own salvation through home repetition of a chant expressing belief in the Lotus Sutra.

In a more recent case, Soka Gakkai filed another criminal libel complaint against the editor of the weekly Gendai magazine and the husband and daughter of a local councilwoman who was found dead beneath an apartment building under suspicious circumstances. The complaint noted that the magazine's article suggested that Soka Gakkai had been involved in the death, which the authorities ruled a suicide. The councilwoman was an anti-Soka Gakkai campaigner.

Subsequently, reports appeared - not denied by Soka Gakkai - saying that the prosecutor who had decided not to investigate possible homicide in the case was a graduate of the religious group's Soka University.

Political opponents of the group have sought to use such incidents to press for new legislation to tighten separation between state and religion, a campaign that gathered steam after an upper house parliamentary election last year in which the group's support was decisive in victories by Shinshin-to candidates.

LDP leaders like secretary-general Koichi Kato argue that Ikeda is trying to take over the whole country through the get-out-the-vote efforts of its brigades of housewife proselytizers.

That is a group that used to include Nobuhira, who as a former member now sides with the Nichiren priests.

Japan's religious wars rage on.

Postscript: The Nobuhira lawsuit against Ikeda was dismissed by a Japanese court in 1996 and in 2006 that lower court decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.

To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject click here.

Look Into Ikeda's Rape Case !!Quotations from the account, which was written by the victim of Ikeda's rape Mrs.Nobuhira are as follows ;

It was in 1971 when the Soka Gakkai constructed Onuma Training Center, an expansive facility covering nearly 2 acres of land inside the boundaries of the Onuma National Park ( in Hokkaido ). And, since June, 1973, Daisaku Ikeda came there for the summer. Taking care of Ikeda at the main building of the Onuma Training Center was my responsibility. That was an order from the top leaders of the Soka Gakkai. The third floor of the main building was Ikeda's private facility, which had a Japanese cypress bath. No one, not even the top leaders, were allowed to go there. In those days in 1973, I was the only one allowed to go to the third floor.

A Photo taken at the Onuma Training Center ( The woman directly on Ikeda's right side is Mrs.Nobuhira. The second over from Ikeda on his left is his wife, Kaneko. )

The First Rape Case 　 It happened on the 3rd day after Ikeda's arrival in Onuma, in other words, the evening of June

27. As part of my duties, I went up to the 3rd floor at 9:00 p.m. to lay out Ikeda's Futon, just as I had done on the two previous evenings, never suspecting that I was about to undergo a terrifying and humiliating experience. On the first and second evenings, Ikeda had not been present, but when I went up that night, he was in the office next to the bed room, writing something. He wore long under pants and a crepe shirt. I entered, saying, " Please pardon my intrusion.", and thinking that I must not disturb him, I began to close the sliding doors between the bedroom and the office. However, Ikeda said, " Leave them open. " I was slouched over, spreading out the sheets with my back to Ikeda when he suddenly leaned against me from behind. This happened in the blink of an eye. While pushing down on me, Ikeda's hands reached for my shoulders and he pulled at both the

collar of my blouse, so it offered not the slightest resistance. The buttons popped off and scattered about. I tried desperately to flee, but with Ikeda's enormous body crushing me, I was unable to even move. He violently tore open my skirt. As he panted with harsh breath, Ikeda spit out, " Just one layer of underwear, I see. " and he shoved his hand into my underwear. Aside from being pushed down upon with tremendous force, I was so afraid I was unable to speak. Then Ikeda firmly speared me from behind. I continued to attempt to resist, struggling and writhing, when everything went pitch black. I lost consciousness lying prostrate. How much time elapsed, I have no idea. Though I was prostrate when I blacked out, when I regained consciousness feeling cold, I found that I had been asleep under the blankets facing the ceiling. With a start, I attempted to be flee, but perhaps because I was petrified with terror, I was unable to stand up. In spite of that, I somehow managed to get to my feet and, clutching my clothes which had lain scattered about, I started to flee. When I did,Ikeda firmly pulled on my ancle. and shouted, " Let's stay in bed awhile ! ". With my ancle in his grasp, I struck my knee against the threshold.When I made another effort to flee, Ikeda again pulled on my ancle.Crawling, I made it to the door. Ikeda persisted in pursuing me. I hit my head on the door. My heart was beating frantically. I truly felt that I might be murdered right there. I was terribly frightened. I finally opened the door, ran down to the second floor and dashed into the bathroom. Violent nausea overtook me for some time. Then I calmed myself and wiped repeatedly at the body fluids which smeared my lawer parts. I continued wiping all the more even after my skin turned red.

→Ikeda's Intence Body Odor

Article taken from: http://www.toride.org/edata/gpower.html

THE POWER OF SOKA GAKKAI

TIME Magazine

November 20, 1995 Volume 146, No. 21

Return to Contents page

JAPAN

THE POWER OF SOKA GAKKAI

GROWING REVELATIONS ABOUT THE COMPLICATED AND SINISTER NEXUS OF POLITICS AND RELIGION

EDWARD W. DESMOND/TOKYO REPORTED BY IRENE M. KUNII/TOKYO

On Sept. 1, Akiyo Asaki, 50, a local assemblywoman from HigashiMurayama, a city on the western outskirts of Tokyo, walked out of her office without explanation and without taking any identification. According topolice, a few hours later she climbed the external stairs of a nearby office building to the fifth floor, scaled a 1.2-m-high wall and jumped to her death. Police concluded that Asaki had taken her own life--until her family protested. "She was not the type to commit suicide," says a close friend and fellow assembly member, Hozumi Yano. "She was always cheerful, even though she knew she was up against a powerful organization."

That organization is Soka Gakkai, Japan's most powerful Buddhist sect.It has at least 8.12 million members; assets estimated to be as high as $100 billion; and a political offshoot, the Komeito (Clean Government Party), that has long been a force in the Diet and in regional assemblies throughout thecountry. In Asaki's view, Soka Gakkai (Value-creating Society) was becoming a bit too forceful.She was helping ex-Soka Gakkai members who were being harassed for quitting, and based on her own investigations,she had accused Komeito politicians of using their clout to give local government contracts to Soka Gakkaimembers. In recent months she had received anonymous death threats onthe phone.No one in authority has suggested that Soka Gakkai had a role inAsaki's death, and the group has categorically denied any connection with the mysterious incident.The sect filed a criminal defamation law suit against Shukan Gendai, a national weekly, for publishing a story in which Asaki's husband and daughteralleged that Soka Gakkai was responsible for her death. The NationalPolice Agency has since instructed local law-enforcement officials to investigate the incident "carefully." And a member of the Liberal Democratic Party has raised the case in a special committee hearing inthe Lower House of the Diet that began two weeks ago to review the freedoms enjoyed by religious groups. Other party legislators arepreparing to bring up the Asaki incident in similar Upper Househearings due to begin later this month.At issue is not a single unexplained death but growing revelations aboutthe complicated, sometimes sinister nexus of religion and politics in modern Japan.

The outcome of the debates in the Diet will have a profound effect on religious freedom, as well as on the volatile world ofpolitics.

The hearings center on a proposal to revise the 1951 Religious Corporations Law, which grants broad freedom from official scrutiny and taxation to thousands of officially recognized religious groups. The Lower House special committee approved the revisions last week and, followingseveral weeks of debate in the Upper House, the proposed changes are almost certain to be approved by both chambers next month. Put forward byPrime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's administration, the revisions wouldintroduce more government oversight.In the past such a tightening would have sparked an outcry against authoritarianism, but polls today show that more than 80% of Japanese are ready to put out the watchdog.

In large part, that change of mood is a reaction to Aum Shinrikyo, theapocalyptic cult whose leader, Shoko Asahara, will soon stand trial for ordering the March 20 sarin-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.Almost as shocking as the 11 deaths that day was the realization thatAum and all other national religious groups face virtually no official scrutiny. As a result, Aum members allegedly were able to carry out astring of serious crimes, including the murder of dissident membersand troublesome critics, without attracting much police attention--until the subway attack.

Asahara's lethal, comic-book conspiracy to take over the governmentdid not come close to success, but it left Japanese wondering what other madness might be lurking in the wings. No one was reassured to learnthat the police habitually turn a blind eye to the activities of religious groups, in part because they fear being tarred as "oppressors." Fifty years ago, Japan's secret police locked up anyone who opposed "state Shinto," the religion of Emperor worship that lost its official status only when Japan was defeated in World War II.After the war, Japan righted the wrong by granting almost boundless freedom to religious groups.

As a result, a tiny, extreme group like Aum Shinrikyo prospered, asdid far more powerful, mainstream Buddhist organizations, such as Soka Gakkai. They face no taxation on activities generously defined as religious and benefit from cut-rate taxes on their extensive business operations. Not only Soka Gakkai but also other large Buddhist sects cultivate politicians; many political leaders proudly associate themselveswith Buddhist and Shinto religious organizations.

No group is quite so disciplined, determined or focused on politicalpower as Soka Gakkai, which is well positioned to wield immense influence over national affairs. For years its members have constituted a vastarmy of volunteer canvassers and fund raisers for Komeito, which untilrecently had 52 seats in the powerful 511-member Lower House, as well as a strong position in many city and prefectural assemblies. Last year Komeito merged with Shinshinto, the main opposition party.

Shinshinto's chief rival, the L.D.P., like most parties in Japan, hasbeen badly weakened by the political turmoil of the past two years and is terrified by the prospect of a showdown with Soka Gakkai, given itstacit support for Shinshinto. The Liberal Democrats' fears are well

grounded: Shinshinto officials admit that in a July Upper House election, Soka Gakkai was responsible for about half the party's 12.5 millionvotes, the best showing by any political faction.

If Prime Minister Murayama's Liberal Democratic-led coalition losesout in elections expected over the coming six months, Shinshinto could form the next government and ex-Komeito members would emerge in many Cabinet posts. Komeito previously had seats in two short-lived Cabinets without scandal, but some fear that Soka Gakkai would use Komeito members to shield the sect and its leader, Daisaku Ikeda, from investigation, promote its militant Buddhist tradition or abuse power in other ways.Says independent legislator Keigo Ouchi, Health Minister in the 1993-94 coalition Cabinet that included Komeito: "Their [Komeito politicians'] loyalty is to Ikeda first and the country second. That is frightening." What also raises suspicions is the sect's strict internal discipline and followers'well-documented allegations of violent intimidation tactics against critics and ex-members. Says Shizuka Kamei, a right-wing Liberal Democraticlegislator, former police official and anti-Soka Gakkai campaigner:"Japan is finished if Soka Gakkai takes over. State Shinto will look good by comparison."

The sect's spokesmen deny that Soka Gakkai is interested in political power and point out that it severed formal ties with Komeito in 1970. That contention is not widely accepted in Japan; nearly all Komeito legislators were Soka Gakkai faithful before the merger with Shinshinto and presumably still are, although they typically insist they are nothing more than religious men with a political calling. Asks Masao Akamatsu, a former Komeito member and now a Shinshinto legislator:"What's so strange about having a religious group behind a political party? All we do is chant our prayer."

Not quite. They also look to the leadership of Ikeda, 67, the enigmatic figure who is the sect's honorary president and unquestioned commander. At a closed meeting of top officials last August at a Soka Gakkai facility in Karuizawa, a small resort town in the Japan Alps, Ikeda showed his hand. According to a member who was present, he said, "This time, not the next time, [the election] is going to be about winning or losing. We cannot hesitate. We must conquer the country with one stroke."

For some Liberal Democrats, tightening the Religious Corporations Lawis one way to head off the Soka Gakkai challenge to the L.D.P., as well as help prevent another Aum incident. The new legislation would place nationally based groups under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, one of the most conservative institutions in the country, and force them to disclose to tax authorities and their membership all details of their financial transactions. The aim is to get more leverage over groups,including Soka Gakkai, whose members sometimes act as though they areabove the law.

Junko Ando, 38, tells a not untypical story. The piano teacher saysshe joined Soka Gakkai eight years ago because "I had no religion of my own. I wasn't unhappy, but I found a lot of fulfillment in the teachingsof Buddha and Nichiren,"a 13th century Japanese monk. She becamedisillusioned because of sect officials' emphasis on fund raising, election activities and what she calls "the Ikeda personality-cult tendency." Shequit and helped more than 30 others leave as well. That move led to

threats and eventually an attack in which a man she recognized as a sect member twisted her arm and took away a camera she was carrying. Shakenbut unhurt, she jotted down the license plate of his car as it droveaway and complained to the police. But as often happens in cases involving religious groups, the authorities did not investigate fully, explainingthat there was insufficient evidence to track down the suspect.

Soka Gakkai opposes the religious-law changes, as do most otherreligious groups to varying degrees, with the exception of Reiyukai, a major Buddhist group, and the Association of Shinto Shrines. Most opponentspoint to the Liberal Democrats' obvious political motive. "The L.D.P.has openly stated that the proposed legislation revision is intended to rein in our activities," says Einosuke Akiya, president of Soka Gakkai."This is sinister indeed." Shinshinto's chief, Ichiro Ozawa, is similarly indignant: "It's an appalling piece of legislation. It's reminiscent of the prewar years."

Critics also point out that the real issue, at least in the case of Aum Shinrikyo, was the failure of the police, not an excess of religious freedoms. The Roman Catholic bishops' conference issued a statement warning that the proposed changes "open the way to guidance and direction by government agencies and make it possible that the 'separation of church and state' may be denied."

In the eyes of Soka Gakkai members, there is considerable reason to fear state authority. The sect was founded in 1930 as the lay arm of the Nichiren Shoshu, one of 38 Buddhist organizations that claim to represent the teachings of Nichiren. Soka Gakkai's founder, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, was eager to reform the school system to include Nichiren's teachings, but the very idea was enough to land him in prison in 1943 for opposing state-ordered Emperor worship. Makiguchi died behind bars, but his disciple Josei Toda survived imprisonment to lead the group after the war. Toda believed political influence was the key to protecting Soka Gakkai from persecution, and the sect began putting up its own candidates for localelections in 1955.

Two years after Toda's death in 1958, Ikeda, a longtime Soka Gakkai official, assumed the presidency and accelerated efforts to gain political influence for the sect.Toshimitsu Ryu, Soka Gokkai's first political strategist and a senior official until he quit the sect in 1991, helped design a plan in the 1960s aimed atwinning office in Tokyo and then other major cities. In 1965 Komeitogained 23 seats in the then 120-seat Tokyo assembly, and ever since has been the fulcrum of power in the fragmented chamber. Says Ryu, a formerKomeito Tokyo assembly member: "They have used their position to gaininfluence over city officials and the Tokyo city budget, particularly the police budget."

According to Ryu, it was Ikeda who transformed Soka Gakkai's strategyof self-protection into a bid for political power. In 1964 Ikeda formed Komeito, and it made its debut in national politics a year later by winning 25 seats in the Lower House of the Diet. In 1970, after a scandal in which Komeito leaders tried to persuade retailers not to sell a book critical of Soka Gakkai, Ikeda announced that the sect would stay out of politics and Komeito would be independent. But Soka Gakkai is still widely thought to be calling the shots behind the scenes. "It's a lie," says Ryu. "On the surface we pretended that Komeito was separate,but it was always the political arm of the organization."

To most Soka Gakkai members, the world of politics is far away. Theysee the sect as a source of community and spiritual comfort. It teaches a variant of Mahayana Buddhism developed by Nichiren. He taught thatfollowers could attain salvation by chanting every day the simplewords, "I take my refuge in the Lotus Sutra." The Lotus Sutra, one of the most widely venerated scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, teaches thatthere is only one path to enlightenment and it is accessible toeveryone.

Soka Gakkai followers are taught to chant and recite passages from theLotus Sutra in front of a small altar that holds the Gohonzon, a copy of a small scroll inscribed with Chinese characters that symbolizes the Lotus Sutra. They fervently believe their prayers bring them good fortune in this life as well as the next one. Japan's rapid economic growth through the end of the 1980s was the best recruiting agent Soka Gakkai could have desired. Says Masao Okkotsu, a former member who has written extensively on theorganization: "As Japan entered an era of high economic growth, peoplemoved from rural areas to industrial centers. They were lonely, poor and cut off. Soka Gakkai offered companionship, easy loans and an ideology to fill the gap." Nichiren taught that chanting makes Buddhists better people and that that in turn improves society as a whole.

Most members get their news from the daily Seikyo Shimbun (circ. 5.5million), the sect's official publication, and many send their children to Soka Gakkai--sponsored schools. The best go on to Tokyo's highly competitive Soka University. Near the group's nondescript headquarters in Shinanomachi, Tokyo, the sect owns many surrounding buildings, and security is a major worry.Members in blue blazers with walkie-talkies stand on street corners for blocks around. Last year, according to a leaked police report, Aum Shinrikyo allegedly tried to kill Ikeda.

Dedicated members--housewives are the biggest group--immerse themselves in raising money, making converts and canvassing for political causes. Their persistence is well known:they call neighbors repeatedly before elections, and then afterward to ask how they voted. Most members are quite ready to hand over asignificant part of their earnings to the group--anywhere from $100 ayear to tens of thousands of dollars."Soka Gakkai followers believe they will be compensated in their own lifetimes," says Yoshiyuki Wakamatsu, 52, a Tokyo factory worker. "The more you give, the more you receive."Soka Gakkai's yearly fund drives raise an estimated $2 billion in cash.

At the center of this universe is Ikeda, a balding, stocky man whose appearance at rallies makes people burst into tears of joy because he is revered as a great teacher who has shown his flock the way to happiness and fulfillment. Says Chie Sunada, 22: "[Ikeda] teaches us the basics of how we should live. He is really a great master."

Soka Gakkai's greatest vulnerability is its dark side. Nichiren was deeply intolerant of other Buddhist sects. He insisted that all Zen followers are devils, and he justified militancy and even violence to defend his sect and to repress rival organizations. The government under the Kamakura shogunate exiled him twice for predicting disasters and foreign invasions if the country's leaders did not stamp out competing sects. Soka Gakkai shares Nichiren's militant aspect. It is openly hostile to other creeds, and members, especially important ones, run a frightening gauntlet if they try toquit.

According to ex-followers, Soka Gakkai spies on its own ranks, trailing and intimidating those who are unsure of their commitment. Shuichi Sanuki, editor of a biweekly newspaper for the 10,000 members of the Soka Gakkai Victims Association, claims to have overseen, among other activities, the sect's alleged spying apparatus in Tokyo. He quit, along with many other disenchanted members, in 1991 when the Nichiren Shoshu, which provided the sect's priesthood, grew angry over Ikeda's attempts to take over the religious wing and excommunicated him. Sanuki says he received death threats over the phone, and members of the Soka Gakkai Housewives' Association even contacted his wife and urged her to divorce him. Says he: "I know what the group does to people whom it regards as its enemies. It's not safe for anyone who dares to criticize it."For its part, Soka Gakkai resolutely denies any involvement in suchharassment.

So do Komeito legislators, who claim to stand against corruption and pacifism. Yet the party had long-standing back-room ties with the most corrupt faction in the l.d.p., the group formed around the lateKakuei Tanaka. Though Liberal Democrats denounce Soka Gakkai today, the sect has been helpful in the past, most notably supporting the l.d.p. on the passage of a controversial 1992 law that permitted Japan to sendtroops overseas on U.N. peacekeeping missions for the first time. In return, admitted the late Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe in a 1993 magazine interview, the l.d.p.government quashed a tax case aimed atthe sect.

Last year 64 Komeito members of the Upper and Lower houses of the Diet merged with Ozawa's Shinshinto in a move to improve their chances in the next national elections. Ozawa could not resist the temptation to win the backing of Soka Gakkai's grass-roots activists. Shinshinto denies that it receives any funds from Soka Gakkai and insists that Shinshinto is in the driver's seat. Says Hajime Funada, a Shinshinto legislator whois not a member of Soka Gakkai: "As long as they have no more than 50%of political power, it's all right.But we do need to take care to keep their influence in check."

The debate about Soka Gakkai's intentions leads back to Ikeda, whose favorite phrase when exhorting his senior followers is Tenka o toru (conquer the country). In his rare public interviews, Ikeda presents himself as a moderate who has been miscast by the press. "I am an ordinary and serious man," he told the BBC in an interview this year. "The mass media, with the exception of the bbc, make up this image of me as a dictator and so forth. This troubles me very much."

Whatever his political ambitions, Ikeda enjoys the limelight on his own terms. Like many wealthy, would-be world figures, he seeks chances to meet international celebrities such as Margaret Thatcher or, just this year, Nelson Mandela, in order to enhance his stature among the followers. He has also built up a pricey art collection for Soka Gakkai, including two Renoirs, sometimes buying numerous paintings at a time from a single gallery and having aides pay for the works with suitcases of cash that they carry on trips.

To his followers he is irresistible, the pinnacle of the organization that means so much to them. But on the rare occasion when he appears in public, like at a 1993 meeting of Soka Gakkai International in California, Ikeda comes off as surprisingly voluble and erratic. On that occasion, he repeatedly pounded the table with both hands and mocked President Bill Clinton. Former close associates like Ryu insist that Ikeda is not very religious.

Whatever Ikeda's strengths or failings, the spotlight is on Soka Gakkai, and the sect is determined to prove it is a benign if not benevolent force in society. President Akiya has declared the sect will drop its antagonistic views toward other groups. Says former Komeito member Akamatsu: "I can understand why the l.d.p. is saying that Ikeda is intent on seizing political power. In the past, Komeito wanted to spread the Nichiren prayer for the good of the people. But those days are over."In the view of the Liberal Democrats, however, Soka Gakkai's past leaves too many questions unanswered. Says Koichi Kato, L.D.P.secretary-general: "If Shinshinto wins the next election, it will be thanks to the Soka Gakkai engine. So, of course, Soka Gakkai can exert influence over the government. I don't think that will be a good thing."In the end, the voters can decide for themselves.

--Reported by Irene M. Kunii/Tokyo

Copyright © 1995 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Article taken from: http://www.toride.org/edata/gpower.html

This page contains information The Rick A. Ross Institute has gathered about Soka Gakkai.

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