But the DPJ does not attract Soka Gakkai support. The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has promised to build an alternative secular war memorial something Soka Gakkai members say is needed to improve relations with Asia. Thinking about Japan’s position in the world as it is developing, I don’t see how it can be a positive thing.” “Yasukuni is a painful subject,” said Narita. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, who founded the group in 1930, died behind bars in 1944 after being jailed for opposing government-imposed Shinto. The Yasukuni issue is particularly sensitive for Soka Gakkai, given its link to the state Shinto religion used to justify Japan’s World War Two militarism.
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“With the LDP we feel we are getting the message through,” she said citing childcare allowances and free healthcare for children as examples of improved welfare policy. “As a housewife, I often pass on messages to our Komeito member of parliament about people’s problems and what we would like them to do,” said Chieko Kubota, a 38-year-old mother of two. Many say New Komeito’s influence on the LDP-dominated coalition has brought much-needed change to welfare legislation. Soka Gakkai followers, sometimes treated with suspicion for their eagerness to recruit new members, are keen to stress their ordinariness, and their concerns are largely practical. I can’t exactly say working with the LDP is the best option, but it is a better option,” the 36-year-old adman said.
“Politics requires compromise to get things done. “Politics is a rather different sphere from religion,” said advertising executive Mitsutoshi Narita, one of several sect members who gathered to speak at a straw-matted Tokyo meeting room dominated by a large, black Buddhist altar. In practice, that means voting for Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party despite misgivings over the LDP’s plans to alter Japan’s pacifist constitution and his visits to Yasukuni shrine for war dead, seen as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.
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