Shukan Shincho

This announcement burst forth when Michio Watanabe was introduced at a lecture meeting held in Tokyo last November 26, a lecture meeting sponsored by the Japanese Commentators Association.

His speech consisted mainly of criticism of the economic policies of the Hosokawa cabinet. Among his criticisms was the statement, "Hiro Mie, president of the Bank of Japan, merits the death penalty for his bungled financial policies."

At the same time he criticized the political parties in power, but in particular he clearly struck a posture of confrontation against Soka Gakkai and Komeito.

He said, "If, in the general election, Soka Gakkai uses its money to distribute Komeito votes among the Social Democratic Party and Shinseito (Rebirth Party), I will not remain silent. Until now, in order to receive support for LDP bills in the Diet, the LDP has looked the other way and has covered up Soka Gakkai tax evasions and what not, but now it will no longer do so. If the Soka Gakkai says that it will work with other parties to bring down the LDP, I will not remain silent..."

In short, he stated that during the LDP administrations, in order to make an ally of Komeito, the LDP looked the other way in regards to the actions of Komeito's backer, the Soka Gakkai, and covered up Soka Gakkai tax evasions, but in the next election, if Soka Gakkai sets its funds and people into motion for the sake of the Social Democratic Party and Shinseito, instead of just Komeito, he will not remain silent. It appeared to be a shot leveled at Soka Gakkai more than at Komeito.

There would be no more scandalous announcement than if the political parties currently in power conducted a cover-up of a religious body's tax evasion. It is thought that Michio Watanabe, a former Vice Prime Minister, spoke with extraordinary resolution.

Overhearing Michio Watanabe's speech, a Gakkai observer said, "The Soka Gakkai is an extremely unusual religious group. As a religious association, they were originally nothing more than a group of Nichiren Shoshu believers. Nichiren Shoshu itself is a religious corporation certified by the Education Ministry, and each of its branch temples is a religious corporation. However, Soka Gakkai also applied to theTokyo Bureau's Administration Guidance Department in 1952 and received certification as a religious corporation. Usually, groups of believers do not become religious corporations. Even though there are three essential prerequisites to becoming a religious corporation, that is, a doctrine, a spiritual head or founder, and believers, a religious group (by definition) has only believers. It is a puzzle as to why they received recognition as a religious corporation. One theory is that after the war, GHQ in no time promoted the freedom of religion, so they took advantage of the confusion of the moment.

Nevertheless, after becoming a religious corporation, they became tax exempt, with no need to report revenue and expenditures to anyone. Before anyone knew it, they increased their believers through intense shakubuku, and they turned into an enormous money collection machine with a nationwide system which collected money through donations which they refer to as zaimu. Recently, though they have separated from their Head Temple in a dispute, they are still recognized as a religious corporation just like before.

Even now, the donations they collect from their general believers exceed $2 billion a year. Apart from that, they acquire $3 billion a year in donations collected under the name of 'kofu fund,' as well as revenue from huge cemetaries they operate in 6 locations throughout the country, and proceeds from Seikyo Shinbun and other auxilliary enterprises. This is all tax exempt.

Their savings are tremendous. Just their real estate alone is valued at $100 billion, and cash in the form of stocks is $3 billion. Aside from that, it is said that there are hidden funds known only to Honorary President Daisaku Ikeda totaling $20 billion. This is a religious group which has become problematic in regards to whether or not they really are a religious corporation."

However, it appears that the National Tax Administration Agency has in the past only twice audited this money-covered Soka Gakkai. The first time was conducted during the age of the Kakuei Tanaka cabinet, but Daisaku Ikeda and Kakuei were on intimate terms, and it is the accepted opinion among Gakkai observers that Kakuei put pressure on the National Tax Administration Agency and had the audit halted before it was concluded.

The second time was just recently, covering the short period from the latter half of 1990 and carrying over into 1991. Data Audit Section Six (a department which specializes in auditing non-profit foundations and special corporations) of the Tokyo Regional Tax Administration Bureau said they started the audit. In actuality, this second audit was not only started, but it was an important and anticipated audit.

At any rate, in the summer of the previous year (1989), the preposterous "Safe Incident" occurred, in which a Soka Gakkai safe containing 170 million yen ($1.2 million, according to the exchange rates of the time) was discarded in a trash dump in Yokohama. It will be remembered that the Soka Gakkai smoothed it over by quibbling that it was the personal money of Haruo Nakanishi, who was previously in Ikeda's entourage, but it appeared to everyone that this was but one portion of Ikeda's hidden money.

On top of that, in November of the same year, an incident occurred in which a chief priest of Nichiren Shoshu in Beppu City, Oita Prefecture (in Kyushu) was kidnapped with a ransom demand of $6 million. The fact that the Soka Gakkai promptly made the arrangements for the $6 million was a surprise for the general public, but when the police apprehended the criminals, they turned out to be Soka Gakkai members. It was a rather crude affair.

Yet, since the general public raised an outcry over successive incidents in which hundreds of millions fluttered around, the tax authorities could not ignore it, and they began a serious audit in which they scouted for the Soka Gakkai's hidden money.

But, the audit produced no results. It concluded with the Tokyo Regional Tax Administration Agency recognizing only the Soka Gakkai's selling of tombstones among their cemetary enterprises as a for-profit business. Only a small amount of tax was collected.

When the audit results were released, there once again arose suspicions around the incident of the Renoir paintings (March, 1991). This time, when an art museum connected to the Soka Gakkai purchased two Renoir paintings for $41 million through the medium of Mitsubishi, an unaccounted for expenditure of $15 million turned up, and there was an outcry over the suspicions that the unaccounted for expenditures wound up in Daisaku Ikeda's pocket. The Tokyo Regional Tax Administration Agency reported that they were reopening their audit of the unaccounted for expenditures, and for a time there were high expectations, but of course the audit concluded without the looked for results. The Soka Gakkai's impregnability was all that was discovered.

Actually, rumors spread that during this second series of audits as well, "governmental suppression" had increased, and Michio Watanabe's speech vouched for this rumor. We listened anew to former Vice Prime Minister Watanabe.

"The speech of the 26th was a symbolic portion of past problems in which the LDP discerned all of the Soka Gakkai's difficulties. I had nothing to do with it, but because they were relied upon in the arena of national politics, everything (that is, the national tax audits) was halted midway.

This is not a problem of laws, but a problem of common sense. The problems with the Fuji cemetaries and the 'Safe Incident,' these are strange to anybody who thinks about them. They say a man named Nakanishi stored the $1.2 million in the safe. But, the National Tax Administration and the police aren't blind and stupid. It's clear that some agent was at work.

Additionally, the Gakkai constructs buildings called 'Culture Centers' all over the country, but they're actually for Ikeda's use. You can do anything you want when you have tax exempt income. When Ikeda goes overseas, he spends hundreds of millions of yen and travels like a lord. He could do this because the LDP looked the other way. (Concerning the tax evasions) I don't defintely know, but if I remember correctly, there was talk around the time of the Persian Gulf War. At that time, Komeito opposed the PKO (UN sponsored Peace Keeping Operations) bill. (The bill would have the Japanese government fund Desert Storm.) The LDP planned to send 9 billion dollars from the emergency fund of the fiscal year's budget to support the Persian Gulf War, and the measure had to be completed by March, the end of the fiscal year. At that time the opposition parties held a majority in the Upper House, and there would not have been time for passage of the measure if it had been voted down in the Upper House and sent back. Therefore, the LDP looked to Komeito.

It was decided to kill a small insect (the tax audits) in order to let a large insect (aid for the Persian Gulf War) survive. It was precisely at that time that the National Tax Administration began auditing the Soka Gakkai."

The time period of the "tax evasion cover-up" of which Mr. Watanabe speaks corresponds precisely with the time period during which the Soka Gakkai Headquarters had begun to be audited.

As stated earlier, the only results the Tokyo Regional Tax Administration Agency produced was a revision of the tombstone sales at their cemetary enterprises and a revision which would include a portion of the Gakkai Headquarters utilities and personnel expenses in the calculation of Seikyo Shinbun's operating expenses. However, in actuality, the possibility of an audit into Daisaku Ikeda's tax evasions becomes unexpectedly high.

Masao Okkotsu, a journalist well versed in the Gakkai problem, says, "The point of the tax audit conducted by the National Tax Administration was to inquire into whether its earnings were for the public good as a religious corporation or for money-making purposes, whether Daisaku Ikeda used Soka Gakkai facilities for his personal use, whether zaimu collected from Gakkai believers were donations or gifts, and whether there were unclear points concerning how Gakkai appropriations are spent.

If all of that had been resolved, it would have presumably expanded to the preposterous tax evasion incidents, but it all misfired. It is said that the LDP Secretary General of the time, Ichiro Ozawa, and Komeito struck a deal with each other. From the time of Kakuei Tanaka, the Tanaka faction intensified its opposition to the Social Democratic Party and in doing so aligned itself with Komeito to engineer the political world.

This relationship has passed on to Noboru Takeshita and Ichiro Ozawa. It is said that in January of last year, when the audits of the National Tax Administration were all concluded, Ikeda praised Ozawa to the skies, saying at a gathering of leaders, 'We're safe from the National Tax Administration. Ozawa's truly amazing. Even if Komeito Diet members are implicated, it would not sit with Ozawa.'"

Ichiro Ozawa and the Komeito Secretary General (Ichikawa) form the nucleus of the current Hosokawa cabinet and make a total "Ichi-Ichi" combination. Many Gakkai observers think the Gakkai will take advantage of this structure to cover-up their tax evasions. On the other hand, we hear from Komeito Prefectural Diet Members who are part of an anti-Ikeda faction and who were elected from around the capital, "Even though people say that the National Tax Administration was restrained, it is true that the report concerning the cemetaries (the tombstone sales being a for-profit enterprise) was revised. Common sense says that for a religious corporation, that alone is a serious matter. They lost money in stock investments and they received compensation from the securities firm, but at that time, President Akiya said, 'From now on, we want to make sound investments.' They are a group who has forgotten all sense of shame.

However, all the main leaders say that Honorary President Ikeda's favorite saying is 'Protect me.' The Komeito as well is a political party whose purpose is to protect Honorary President Ikeda. We've heard talk many times that the National Tax Administration has been restrained and the police have been restrained, but when we ask about it, it all dies away."

Be that as it may, members of the Watanabe faction add, "Even if he suspects something, Michio has an unexpectedly prudent nature, and he doesn't speak unless he is sure of himself. He made that announcement after pondering it carefully.

From the outset, he has maintained an independent line of communication with Komeito. During last year's Upper House elections, he was sick in the hospital, but knowing that candidates from his own faction were in danger, he got in touch with Komeito and the day before the election 20,000 Komeito votes were transfered to his faction and his candidates were elected to office. Being able to strike such a difficult bargain while in the hospital shows the extent of communications he has with Komeito. Because of that, a joke emerged that he had covered-up the National Tax Administration audits during his days as Foreign Minister.

Yet, because of that connection, he knows the nature of the Gakkai and hates it to the core. Looking at the Gakkai Culture Centers, he speaks with undisguised hatred, saying, 'The creeps who built those won't pay their taxes.' He has mutually kind feelings with Ichiro Ozawa, and they talk, but he cannot express his true sentiments on these matters with him.

At any rate, those within the LDP who look upon the Soka Gakkai as dangerous are swelling. The Soka Gakkai is the one which would realize the most power under the election district proportional representation system. Even in district elections with no candidates announced from Komeito, only those for whom the Gakkai mobilizes its money and people will win the election.

Perhaps they will become elections in which the Socialist Democratic Party and Shinto rely upon the Gakkai. In the future, the person who would lead a ruling coalition would be Daisaku Ikeda, and so it can only be said that the LDP's true enemy is the Soka Gakkai. Michio himself has said, 'It doesn't matter what Komeito does. The one whose sights are set on the reins of the entire country is Daisaku Ikeda,' and 'He's become nothing but a great evil.'"

Be that as it may, the talk of tax evasions is not merely to make fools of the taxpayers. It is a larger problem than that with the general contractors (a refence to scandals within the construction industry).

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