"The Japanese public is constantly exposed to the headlines on the hanging advertisements in trains and subways... Even if you don't read them but just kind of notice the slander and gossip day after day, a negative image begins to develop and grow, and you start to become suspicious..."--Noboru Okaniwa [1]
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As The Australian Financial Review stated, "there are widespread negative feelings in the community towards Soka Gakkai engendered by...relentless negative campaigns against the organization by magazines." [2]
POLITICAL CONTEXT
The weekly Japanese tabloid press is the main engine producing scandals about Soka Gakkai. This negative press coverage stems partly from the political situation. Soka Gakkai backs Japan's third largest party, the New Komeito, which often holds the balance of power in Japanese politics. It is no coincidence that media attacks on Soka Gakkai appear with greater intensity especially before any election.
IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM
Japanese bookstores abound with books critical of the "tabloid" media
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Furthermore, the Japanese tabloid press is notorious for its sensationalism and for writing articles without conducting proper investigation of factual grounds. For example, over a two-year period from 2002 to 2003, the media reported on 19 libel suits that were successfully brought against Shinchosha, the publishing house of Shukan Shincho, one of the highest-selling weeklies and a frequent source of anti-Soka Gakkai stories. The damages Shinchosha was ordered to pay by the courts amounted to over 60 million yen. The weekly has in the past falsely blamed an innocent man for the sarin gas attack in Matsumoto in 1994, later attributed to Aum Shinrikyo; displayed the private history and pictures of a woman who died from AIDS; and ridiculed victims of the Minamata mercury poisoning scandal, intimating some had affected Minamata Sickness symptoms to obtain reparations from the government.
Jun Kamei, who worked as the deputy editor of Shukan Shincho for nearly 20 years until he became disillusioned with the industry, said: "[What motivates them is] the profit motive. By deliberately infringing on the rights of ordinary people, their stories sell better. They've learned that every time they appeal to their readers' baser instincts--that sense of sadistic voyeurism latent in all of us which delights in the suffering of others--circulation soars." [3]
Juichi Saito, former Special Advisor to Shinchosha, the publisher of Shukan Shincho, stated in a 1995 interview: "In the art of writing, there is no such thing as truth or justice." [4]
WEAK LIBEL LAWS
Soka Gakkai has sued the tabloids which have published unfounded stories and has won each case. However, Japanese libel laws are not strong enough to protect those harmed by libelous allegations. For the tabloid publishers, increases in sales generated by alleged scandals about Soka Gakkai and its honorary president far outweigh any legal damages they are made to pay.
"From the perspective of the media, (the payment of a relatively small amount of damages) has virtually no effect compared to the profit that they make from selling sensationalism."--Takesato Watanabe [5]
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A U.S. legal publication, the Journal of International and Comparative Law, demonstrated that over a three-year period in the 1990s, the average amount of damages awarded to successful libel plaintiffs in Japan was 939,000 yen, or approximately US$8,000. Although the amount of damages is gradually increasing, this is hardly a deterrent to would-be libelous publishers. In the United States, on the other hand, where protections against libel are more stringent, the average award during the same period was US$1.3 million. [6]
STORIES RECYCLED
Numerous false stories about Soka Gakkai and its honorary president--such as the trumped-up charge of sexual assault by Nobuko Nobuhira, groundless accusations about Soka Gakkai's complicity in a city councilwoman's suicide, and unfounded charges that Soka Gakkai caused the death of a priest--have been litigated in Japanese courts, and Soka Gakkai has consistently prevailed. Scandalous stories breaking in the Japanese tabloid press often make their way into respected international publications, and Soka Gakkai's eventual legal victories--years later--almost never get reported.
[1] Noboru Okaniwa [Japanese journalist], "Embattled Buddhists: Under the Rising Sun," a PBS television program aired in the US in 2003.
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[2] Tony Boyd [IT editor for the Australian Financial Review], "Sacred Spirit Caught Up in the Profane," The Australian Financial Review, 14 October 1996, 11.
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[3] "Tabloid Horror: A History of Collusion and Abuse," Mission Statement, The Liaison Committee of Human Rights and Mass Media Conduct (JIMPOREN) [http://www.jca.apc.org/~jimporen/mission07.html] (15 March 2004).
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[4] "Tabloid Horror: A Litany of Abuse," Mission Statement, The Liaison Committee of Human Rights and Mass Media Conduct (JIMPOREN) [http://www.jca.apc.org/~jimporen/mission08.html] (15 March 2004).
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[5] Takesato Watanabe [professor of journalism, media & communication studies at Doshisha University], Media Literacy, (Tokyo: Diamondosha, 1997), 90-91. [trans.]
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[6] Jeffrey A. Ourvan [American lawyer], "Damage Control: Why Japanese Courts Should Adopt a Regime of Larger Libel Awards," New York Law School: Journal of International and Comparative Law, (New York: NY Law School, 2002), 318.
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