SOKA GAKKAI

Soka Gakkai, also known as Hito no Michi, is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that grew out of Nichiren sect of Buddhism. It followers believe that salvation and good luck can be attained by repeatedly chanting, "I take my refuge in the Lotus Sutra." The Lotus Sutra is an ancient Mahayana Buddhist text. It asserts that all beings can attain the state of Buddha and enlightenment through simple devotion.

Soka Gakkai has been called a distilled form of Nichiren Buddhism. Its name means “Value-Creating Society." One of the largest religious sects in Japan, it teaches that spiritual (and perhaps material) happiness for an individual are achievable in this world through a simple spiritual practice of chanting specific matras. Between 1951 and 1980 it grew from 51,000 to 16 million members. Tina Turner is one of the 300,000 Soka Gakkai members in the United States.

The main schools of Nichiren Buddhism are the Soka Gakkai, Nichiren Shoshu and Nichiren Shu. Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists argue that Nichiren was the divine reincarnation of Buddha Sakaymuni (563-483 BCE). Nichiren Shu, however, teaches that Nichiren was not a Buddha but a priest. This is the main doctrinal difference between these two schools of Buddhism. The Soka Gakkai is based on Nichiren Shoshu teachings. The two organisations split in 1991 and now work as separate bodies.

In the 1970s, Soka Gakkai dedicated a huge temple at the foot of Mt. Fuji, said to be one of the largest religious structures ever built. The services there often resembled political conventions.

Soka Gakkai Practices

According to the BBC: The Nichiren Shoshu school of Buddhism teaches that the sangha is the priesthood alone, while Soka Gakkai does not restrict the sangha in this way. Unlike other schools of Buddhism, its members actively proselytise. Similarities can still be drawn between Nichiren practice and other forms of Buddhism. Pilgrimages are made to the head temple of the Nichiren Shoshu school of Buddhism at Taisekiji, near Fujinomiya City in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, where the Dai-Gohonzon is kept, together with the ashes of Nichiren Daishonin.

Nichiren Buddhists meet weekly or fortnightly in their own homes. Members of the practice are given a Gohonzon (scroll), so that they can practice at home rather than going to a temple. People are divided into groups based on their location and will appoint an overall leader of the group, a men's and women's leader and a youth division leader. This is a very structured arrangement which can be reproduced universally.

A typical Soka Gakkai housewife wakes up at dawn, places rice and water on the family altar and chants the same sutras over and over for around 25 minutes while kneeling and clasping her hands together around prayer beads. After she makes breakfast and gets her husband and children out the door she spends another 45 minutes chanting. "I feel so good afterwards," a 40-year-old housewife told Time," refreshed and ready for the day." [Source: Edward Desmond, Time, November 20, 1995]

Although some of the teaching and practices seem self-centered,, Soka Gakkai members are greatly concerned with others, and believe that world peace can be attained by people developing basic principles of altruism, supporting others, non-violence and self development.

History of Soka Gakkai

Soka Gakkai was founded in 1930 as a branch of Nicherien Shoshi, one of 38 Japan Nichiren Buddhist sects, by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, a follower of Nichirien Buddhism who was jailed for his beliefs and died in prison in 1943. After World War II, the religion was headed by Josei Toda, who believed that political power was the best want to protect Soka Gakkai from persecution. Two years after Toda's death in 1958, the religion was taken over by Daisaku Ikeda.

According to the BBC: In 1930 a lay society known as the Soka Gakkai (Value Creating Society) started to spread its teachings. Soka Gakkai was founded by the educators Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda, who had found parallels between Nichiren's teaching and their philosophy of education. They followed in Nichiren's political footsteps, challenged the militaristic government during World War Two and were imprisoned for opposing government interference in religion. Makiguchi, who was the society's first president, died in jail on November 18 1944.

After the war, the Japanese constitution allowed freedom of religion for the first time. Toda reconstructed the Soka Gakkai as a movement for people in all aspects of society, not just in education. By the time he died on April 2 1958 the organisation had reached more than 750,000 households and some of its members had been elected to the Japanese Parliament.

Daisaku Ikeda (born in 1928) became the third President on May 3 1960, aged only 32. The mastermind behind the group's financial and political activities, Ikeda is regarded as a monarch by his followers, who routinely burst into tears of happiness when they listen to him speak at rallies. While followers have called him a "wonderful and brilliant" master, former close associates say that he is temperamental, power hungry and not very religious. Under his leadership the organisation grew rapidly and expanded abroad. In 1975 Soka Gakkai International was established and Ikeda became its first president. There are now more than 12 million members in 188 countries worldwide. Ikeda wrote many works on Buddhism for lay readers.

In the early 1990s there was a serious split between Soka Gakkai and the Nichiren Shoshu Head Temple. Soka Gakkai objected to various issues concerned with the roles played by the temple priests and was eventually rejected by the Temple organisation.

Soka Gakkai Members and Money

Many Soka Gakkai members send their children to Soka Gakkai schools and devote much of their time to rasing money, winning converts, canvassing and performing political chores such as calling neighbors to get out the vote before elections. Members are encouraged to turn over a large percentage of their income to their Soka Gakkai and taught that giving money to the sect will earn them merit in their next life.

Soka Gakkai is organized like a cooperation and it is believed to control assets worth $100 billion. Activities that fall under a broad definition of religion are not taxed and its extensive business holding are taxed at a much lower ate that businesses held by non-religions. Annual fund raising drives pull in around $2 billion.

Ex-members are reportedly followed, harassed and intimidated. One former member received death threats and his wife was called by the Soka Gakkai Housewives Association and encouraged to divorce him. Another former member, who set up of a competing temple, had 300 Soka Gakkai members burst into his temple during a religious service. Some of them grabbed him and beat him until he passed out. "I thought I was going to die," he told Time. He spent three months in the hospital recovering from injuries to his lungs and other internal organs.

Soka Gakkai and the New Komeito Political Party

The New Komeito (Clean Government Party) is the political arm of the Soka Gakkai. It has been a major force in Japanese politics almost half a century. Founded in 1964, it was the third largest party in Japan in 1980, with 49 members. In 1995, it had 52 seats in the 511-member lower house of the Diet. (The lower house wields more power than the rubber-stamp upper house).

In 1995, Komeito merged with Shinshinto (New Frontier Party), the main opposition party. In a July 1995 election, Soka Gakkai accounted for half of Shinshinto's 12.5 million votes. Before the alliance with Shinshinto, Soka Gakkai maintained links with a corrupt faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LPD).

Komeito is a well organized political machine supported by a massive army of volunteer canvassers. It legislators claim they are not followers of Soka Gakkai (Komeito and Soka Gakkai formally broke formal ties in 1970) but nearly all them were practitioners of the religion before they were elected. In late 1990s Komeito morphed into the New Komeito Party, which has been a coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan for more than two decades.

Scandals Involving Soka Gakkai

In 1970, Komeito and Soka Gakkai formally separated after Komeito leaders were involved in a scandal in which bookstores were pressured not to sell a book critical of Soka Gakkai.

In the late 1980s, Soka Gakkai was allegedly involved in a multi-million art purchase scam that set up slush funds for political candidates they supported.

In 1992, Soka Gakkai helped the LPD pass a controversial law allowing Japanese troops abroad in return for government help in ending "tax cases against the sect."

In September 1995, a 50-year-old local assemblywoman fell to her death under suspicious circumstances from the 5th floor of the Tokyo office building where she worked. At the time of her death she had been investigating Komeito corruption and was trying to help harassed ex-Soka Gakkai members. Before her death, she had received a number of death threats. Police concluded that her death was a suicide. Family insisted "she was not the type to commit suicide."

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Daily Yomiuri, Times of London, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated December 2023