ABSTRACT
ONE OF THE Mahayana-siitras which was composed in India nearly 1800 years ago is playing a new and vital role in highly industrialized democratic Japan today. Without understanding of this unique cultural-political-religious phenomenon, one cannot fully grasp the socio-political picture of Japan which is changing rapidly. The name of the Sutra is the Saddharmapu1J,rjarika-sutra (the Lotus Siitra)l and the names of the organizations which are making a new swing to the Lotus Sutra are the Soka Gakkai (the Value Creating Association) and its political arln, a full-fledged political party named the Komeito which is translated as the Clean Government Party. This group of Neo-Buddhists is said to be three million families strong concentrated in the large cities of Japan. This Buddhist social institution, the Soka Gakkai, sponsored a political party, the Clean Government Party in 1964. Within a year they accomplished two outstanding feats. First, by July 7th, 1965, they gained 20 out of 250 seats of the Upper House of the Japanese Diet and all the 23 candidates for the Metropolitan Assembly election were elected, while the Government Party (the Liberal Democratic Party) lost 31 seats by which they lost the majority in the assembly for the first time in a post-War election.2 This total victory by the Clean Government Party in the municipal elections can be seen throughout the Japanese islands. These people are the members of a religious organization and at the same time as the members ofa political party chant Nammyohorengekyo (namab saddharma-
pUtlt}arika-siltriiya) and lead group discussions on the Lotus Siitra Commentary expanded by a 13th century Japanese Saint Nichiren whom we shall meet presently. In short, a new species of gigantic lotus flower is blossoming in Nippon-the Land of the Rising Sun. In order to make a rough sketch of this new picture together with an aspect of it, we shall consider the following points:
1. Saint Nichiren (1222-1282) and his disciples. 2. 'Neo-Nichirenists' after the World War II. 3. 'Ultra-Nichirenists'-the Soka Gakkai. 4. A worm's-eye-view of the grass roots of the lotus.
