ABSTRACT
Japan's Soka Gakkai, a massive, modern, lay Buddhist movement with perhaps eight million members in Japan and another two million worldwide, has played a decisive but controversial role in the postwar maturation of Japanese democracy. The Soka Gakkai, through its party, the Komeito has provided a voice for millions of alienated Japanese who otherwise have become estranged from the country's postwar political system. For decades, the Soka Gakkai and Komeito, together with other progressive parties, prevented the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from amending Japan's liberal Occupation-era constitution. But it is the Soka Gakkai that had the greatest impact on Japanese politics. Contemporary Soka Gakkai leaders champion freedom of religion, of which they can proselytize their doctrines without fear of interference by the government or any other social or political force in Japan. The Soka Gakkai, like Nichiren, is a world-reforming sect that advocates the necessity of broad social and political change to bring about a peaceful world.
