266 CHAPTER TENknown for its aggressive proselytizing, not only in Japan but also throughout
Asia and the West, employing such tactics as "smash and flatten;' whereby any
resistance on the part of the prospective convert is worn down by physical and
psychological threats and violence. Each follower is duty-bound to convert his
or her family and friends. The aims of the sect include political control of
Japan-its political party, Komeito, has a block of seats in the Japanese Diet-
and conversion of the entire world to its fold. It is extremely intolerant of
other religions; its followers are chiefly among the socially disadvantaged. For-
mally a lay wing of the traditional Nichiren sect for its first fifty years, it was
excommunicated in 1991, although this has had little effect on its programs.
Of the new new religions, the most notorious has been Aumshinrikyo,
which gained international notoriety after an urban guerrilla attack on the
Tokyo subway in 1995. The most successful of these groups, however, has
been Kokufu-no-Kagaku, or the Institute for Research in Human Happiness.
This group was founded in 1986 by Ryuho Okawa, a self-proclaimed incar-
nation of a "core spirit" named El Cantare, whose previous incarnations in-
clude the Buddha and Hermes, the Greek god of the sun. Ryuho's teachings,
as presented in the book Laws <f the Sun, combine the apocalyptic forecasts of
Nostradamus (the sect has produced a popular movie on this theme) with the
laws of the Buddha for a new age-self-reflection and conservative living in
line with the Noble Eightfold Path. In ancient Japan, Ryuho's solar preten-
sions would have been sufficient grounds for execution, but in modern Japan
they simply pass as a sentimental connection with the kami that inspired Japan's
past imperial glories.
10.10 A Religious Life in a Secular World
Rissho Kosei-kai, the second largest of the new religions and probably the
most Buddhist in orientation, offers an interesting case study in the inner dy-
namics of these organizations, in terms of institutional development, world-
view, and religious life. The name of the organization is an acronym. Rissho
stands for "establishing the true law [of the Lotus Siitra] in the world"; ko for
"mutual exchange of thought among people of faith"; and sei for "the perfec-
tion of the personality and attainment ofBuddhahood." The organization was
founded in 1938 by a man, Niwano Nikkyo (b. 1906), and a woman, Naga-
muna Myoko (1889-1957), who were members of Tokyo's small merchant
class. Its early days were similar to those of many other folk religions~ Niwano
and Nagamuna specialized in faith healing, a popular activity in the days when
medical care for Japan's urban poor was uncertain at best. They taught that se-
rious and mysterious diseases were the result of bad karma inherited from
one's ancestors. Using their combined talents to diagnose the precise causes of
a particular disease-Nagamuna heard inner voices that identified themselves