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No.1 Shimbun
August 15, 1998
Hans Katayama
As serials go, it was an epic. From January 1996 to October 1997, some 70 articles were published in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) organ, Jiyu Shimpo. Its theme, no doubt read in morbid fascination by the weekly's 680,000 readers: the making of a Japanese theocracy.
Yet, for all the gravity of the charges it raised and the imprimatur of the party that leveled them, the saga hardly created a stir outside Nagatacho, seat of national politics.
Until last month. The Japanese press is abuzz (though the English editions have been strangely muted) over the "profound regret" made by the LDP on April 21 to the Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest Buddhist society and ruling party nemesis, over four articles it found particularly offensive. While the two now say the dispute is over, critics of the LDP leadership have slammed the move as a betrayal of principle for political gain.
The roots of the affair go back to 1994, when Liberal Democrats began to view with growing alarm the Soka Gakkai-one of the few religious groups in Japan which refused to throw its political lot with the LDP by founding its own party, the Komeito, in 1964. In the wake of the political chaos caused by the LDP's ouster in 1993, the Komeito-backed by its principal constituency-allied with ex-LDP conservatives led by Ichiro Ozawa.
The LDP, assessing that the alignment was its biggest obstacle to power, helped set up the Shigatsu-KaiÅ\an association of anti-Soka Gakkai politicians, scholars, religious groups and scholarsÅ\to galvanize public opinion against the Buddhists. In 1995, key party leaders, including secretary general Koichi Kato, blasted the Soka Gakkai's involvement in politics as being "incompatible" with democracy. Posters and leaflets were distributed across the country, moreover, querying voters whether they wanted government controlled by "one religion."
Then a bombshell fell in 1996: A Hokkaido woman and former Soka Gakkai member charged she had been sexually assaulted by Daisaku Ikeda, the society's honorary president. In their glee, the LDP paraded her case in its Jiyu Shimpo serial, "Watching the NFP-Soka Gakkai," which alluded that their ties were a prelude to a theocratic state.
The Soka Gakkai was incensed by the charges-which it rejects as "total fabrication" and began to mull legal sanctions as an option. Soon after the Jiyu Shimpo serial ended last year, talks began in secret between the two in a bid to settle the row. On April 1 3, Soka Gakkai lawyers issued an official protest to the LDP demanding an apology and retraction; it agreed to comply within a week.
LDP officials emphasize the apology was based solely on the suspect legality of the articles in question. "They were written as if the author actually saw the rape, and that was clearly not the case," says Yasuyuki Suzuki, general manager of the party's public relations arm. That concern, together with the LDP's judgment that the woman's suit was almost certain to be dismissed in May, led to the final decision. Says Suzuki: "We decided to stamp out what was a smoldering cinder before it burned down the forest."
Others see it as a survival tactic of a different sort. The unofficial coalition between the LDP, Social Democratic Party and Sakigake is on rocky shoals: few political analysts expect the latter two to survive past the Upper House election in July. Plus, with public approval of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's performance so dismal, chances for the LDP to gain a majority in the house a key edge in order to pass state budgets are equally dim.
The upshot: The LDP "must rely on another party that is more stable and less obfuscate than the Social Democrats to work with," notes Nagtacho-watcher Setsu Kobayashi, professor of law at Keio University. The only viable substitute, he says, is the Komei, which is backed by the Soka Gakkai.
Little wonder why irate dissenters within the LDP described the move as a "maneuver to achieve political ends." They fear the apology will undermine electoral support by religious groups like Rissho Koseikai, who are at sectarian odds with the Soka Gakkai, that have backed the LDP over the years-a concern many in the now-defunct NFP undoubtedly see as hypocritical.
The LDP fear is real. The Shigatsu-Kai pledges to poll all 752 members of the Japanese parliament to ascertain their position on the Buddhist group; those who are deemed to favor closer ties with the Soka Gakkai-Liberal Democrats in particular-will not receive support in the upcoming election. The only way to prevent the threat from being carried out, the association says, is to retract the Jjyu Shimpo retraction.
Given the LDP leadership's flair for abrupt aboutfaces, that may just happen-if it does, then the saga on the Soka Gakkai has yet to conclude.
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