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Chapter prepared for „Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan“ Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, forthcoming DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION Chapter Two Religious Groups in Japanese Electoral Politics 1 Axel Klein & Steven R. Reed 1. Introduction The key to electoral success is the ability to organize and mobilize people. Religious groups are well designed to perform these tasks. One should thus not be surprised to learn that some of the most successful parties in Western Europe have been Christian Democratic parties (Kalyvas 1996; Kselman and Buttigieg 2003). In the case of Japan, however, Toyoda and Tanaka observe that “religion in contemporary postwar Japanese society is viewed by most observers to be politically irrelevant, or at most on the political periphery” (2002: 269). The standard wisdom among political scientists is that Japan has no religious cleavage. Watanuki states the case best: “Of the four types of social cleavages usually associated with voting behavior—regional or ethnic divisions, religious divisions, agrarian-industrial divisions, and class divisions—Japan was basically exempt from the first two and has been so throughout the modern period” (1991: 49). Furthermore, “In addition to the limited number of believers, there is no sharp cleavage between those that believe in some religion and those who do not” (Watanuki 1991: 75). We find no reason to doubt the standard wisdom with respect to 1 We wish to thank Levi McLaughlin, George Ehrhardt, and Daniel Markham Smith for their comments on earlier versions of this chapter. We also want to thank Yuki Abe for his diligent data collection. 30 Chapter prepared for „Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan“ Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, forthcoming DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION voting behavior. There is no religious cleavage in Japanese voting behavior, let alone anything analogous to the Catholic-Protestant cleavage that has played such a large role in West European electoral politics. With respect to political parties, however, K ōmeit ō challenges the standard wisdom. Since its first general election in 1967, it has been one of several small opposition parties in a party system dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and, in that sense, K ōmeit ō might have been considered peripheral during that period. However, even during the era of LDP dominance, the party won around 10% of the vote and was no more peripheral than the Japan Communist Party or the Democratic Socialist Party. At least since the 1990s, however, K ōmeit ō has become a pivotal player in Japanese politics. One cannot understand Japanese politics since 1993 without understanding K ōmeit ō. On the other hand, K ōmeit ō is the only religious party to challenge the standard wisdom. Only one other religious party, Itt ōen, has ever won a single seat in a national election, and that party won one seat in 1947 and withdrew from electoral politics soon thereafter. Except for K ōmeit ō, religious parties are indeed peripheral. With respect to supporting candidates nominated by other parties, however, the standard wisdom seriously underestimates the influence of religious groups in electoral politics. Religious groups have long been important sources of what politicians call the “organized vote” ( soshiki-hy ō) (Hori 1985; Klein 2012). The vote-mobilization capacity of religious groups is greater than such organizations as the construction industry, the medical professions or agricultural cooperatives, each of which are usually considered 31 Chapter prepared for „Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan“ Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, forthcoming DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION powerful actors in Japanese politics. Religious groups have thus played a much bigger role in politics than the standard wisdom suggests, though that participation has taken a low-visibility mode. Again, however, K ōmeit ō towers over other groups. The S ōka Gakkai (hereafter, SG), the religious group that forms the electoral base of K ōmeit ō, mobilizes three or four time more votes than all other religious groups taken together and is by far the largest single source of organized votes in Japan. 2. Religious Political Parties We define a religious party as a party whose primary organizational and voting support comes from a religious group. We define a religious group simply as any group registered with the government as a “religious corporation” ( sh ūky ō h ōjin ). The criteria for official assignment of this legal status are laid down in the Religious Corporations Law ( sh ūky ō h ōjinh ō). It defines religious groups ( sh ūky ō dantai ) as those which main purpose is to spread a religious creed ( ky ōgi ), conduct ceremonies ( gishiki ), and educate believers ( ky ōka ikusei ). If such a group also has a place of worship, it can apply for the status of sh ūky ō h ōjin . So defined, it has proven difficult to study religious parties in Japan. Most have been small and ephemeral, attracting little attention from political scientists or the press. Some have not advertised their religious affiliations, possibly to avoid the allergy to the involvement of religion in politics noted in Chapter One. Openly 32 Chapter prepared for „Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan“ Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, forthcoming DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION admitting to be supported by a religious organization carries the danger of losing votes from those that oppose the mixing of religion and politics. The best place to look for religious parties is the upper tier of the House of Councilors, the national election that attracts a large number of ephemeral parties. In this tier, the electoral threshold (the minimum required to win one seat) is only about 1% of the vote nationwide. This tier is home to a large number of ephemeral parties which field candidates despite having no realistic hope of winning a seat, though several clearly harbored unrealistically high expectations of victory. Many of these parties are nothing more than a vehicle for a single candidate. Others are dedicated to spreading a single message. Messages include world peace, environmental protections, and gay rights. The need to protect the peace constitution is as well represented, as is the need to respect the emperor and revise the constitution. Others think it crucial that voters understand the importance of education, welfare, or UFOs. Farmers, women, and the elderly are all represented. Some seem designed to promote their business interests. Lawyers, doctors, and hotel managers are well represented. Those parties that continue fielding candidates in the face of repeated and dismal failures are obviously running for some purpose other than gaining votes, seats, or influence over policy, the set of goals political scientists normally attribute to political parties (Muller and Strom 1999). One might thus call them “non-electoral political parties.” Searching through the myriad of minor parties that have run in the upper tier of the House of Councilors between the first postwar election of 1947 through 2010, we have been able to identify ten religious parties other than K ōmeit ō. Here we first 33 Chapter prepared for „Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan“ Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, forthcoming DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION introduce all of the groups for which we were able to find sufficient information. We then discuss three newer parties that have run primarily in the lower house. Viewed from the perspective of the political parties usually studied by political scientists, the religious parties we introduce below may seem very strange indeed. In the context of the other ephemeral parties that run in the upper tier of the House of Councilors, however, the religious parties do not seem at all out of place. The Women’s Party ( Josei-tō, known as the Atarashii Jidai o tsukuru-tō from 1993 to 1996 and not to be confused with the Japan Women’s Party, Nihon Josei-tō) gives no public indication of its religious character. Most people (including ourselves) are surprised to learn of the religious group that backs it ( Wah ōtai no kai , founded by Nishiyama Eiichi who once belonged to SG) and further surprised to learn that the group runs a hotel and a cosmetics company ( Aisutaa ) ( Sh ūkan Aera 7 August 1995: 15). Many of the party’s candidates list their occupation as “employee of a cosmetics firm.” The group seems to combine door-to-door sales with campaigning both for votes and for converts. Though campaigning has not won them many votes, the synergy among these three activities seems clear. The Women’s Party, organized around cosmetics firms, thus seems similar to the Liberal Alliance ( Jiy ū Reng ō), which was based on a nationwide network of hospitals and clinics (Weiner 2003). The party won only one seat but their organizational base allowed them to run candidates nationwide. Most of their candidates listed their occupations as doctor or nurse. Nishida Tenk ō, the founder of Itt ōen mentioned above, a religious group based on J ōdo Shinsh ū (Pure Land Buddhism) and devoted to a form of self-cultivation, won a 34 Chapter prepared for „Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan“ Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, forthcoming DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION seat in the first House of Councilors election in 1947 ( Asahi 27 May 2007). He ran again when his term was up in 1953 but lost with less than half of his previous vote. One loss convinced the group that politics was not for them. The religious group continues to function but no longer participates in elections. This party does not appear to be particularly important but no religious party other than K ōmeit ō has won a seat in any national election since 1947.

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