SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Teaching

Courses Taught

• Social Theory
• Theoretical Approaches to Social Anthropology

Research

Research

My Ph.D. research focused on politics at the grassroots among young Japanese who are members of the religious movement Soka Gakkai (the ‘Value-creation Society’). They primarily canvass for Komeito (the ‘Clean Government Party’) a party that grew out of Soka Gakkai in the 1960s. Komeito belonged to the ruling coalition in Japan during the time of my fieldwork in 2003-4, and the ethnographic data collected spans young Komeito supporters’ canvassing activities for the Lower House Election in November 2003 through an Upper House Election in July 2004. Through the examples of particular groups of young people, many of whom were university students, I explored their political activities in light of a Japanese youth culture that is generally perceived to be politically apathetic or disillusioned. In contrast, these young people were active political actors, who moreover, worked to contribute to wider common concerns such as adequate welfare provision, environmental protection, human rights and international peace. The thesis revolves around their victories and dilemmas as young people engaged in organised politics where they find themselves often up against wider social forces that are difficult to change. I explore their religious philosophy and practices that underlie their attitude to politics and what it means to support a political party. I am interested in the contrast this makes to the prevailing popular and academic perceptions of the role of religion, particularly so-called new religious movements in Japanese society. Here young people are predominantly motivated to become socially and politically engaged because of their immersion in a religious organization that promulgates a particular life philosophy and practice. It is thanks to these experiences that they learn to debate confidently about issues of common public interest.
I continued my firsthand research on Soka Gakkai’s support for Komeito in 2009 and 2010, a period that included the historic change of power in Japan in 2009, and Komeito standing yet again as an opposition party in 2010. In light of continuing concern about lack of political participation, a weak civil society, and insufficient accountability of political powers, my forthcoming book, Soka Gakkai Youth and Komeito: Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan, contends that a strong belief in the power of the individual to affect political change is an example, at first sight paradoxically, of the way a “new” religion can act as a secularising force. I explore how rather than religion intruding into the secular domain of politics, religious ideas and practices are actually creative of secular political subjects.

In the summer of 2008, I also began a new research project tentatively titled Peace at the Grassroots: Daisaku Ikeda’s Life Philosophy and Youth Groups in Soka Gakkai. This book project is exploring the social and cultural activities of some of the youth groups that exist in Soka Gakkai in Japan devoted in one way or another to the idea of peace. This study focuses on the practice of Nichiren Buddhism as interpreted and promulgated by Daisaku Ikeda. The research will continue in the summer of 2011.

Conference papers

• Conference papers based on fieldwork carried out in Japan between 2003-2004, and 2009 and 2010:
  ‘Religious Idealism and Political Reality: Young Soka Gakkai Members as Komeito Supporters.’ The Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions Seminar, SOAS, January 2005.
• ‘Religious Messages on Gender Equality: Women in Soka Gakkai in Japan and the SGI-UK.’ BSA Sociology of Religion Conference, Lancaster, April 2005.
• ‘Dilemmas over the Iraq War of Young Soka University Students in Their Support for the Komei Party.’ Research Student Forum: Japanese Humanities, Birkbeck & the Japan Research Centre, SOAS, May 2005.
• ‘The Issue of the Iraq War and Soka Gakkai Members’ Support for Komeito.’ Institute of Oriental Philosophy Lecture, Taplow, July 2005.
• ‘Interpreting Religious Text: Soka Gakkai on the Meaning of the Spiritual as Political Action.’ Reading Spiritualities Conference, Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, January, 2006.
• ‘To What Extent do Japanese Images of Western Political Systems Shape the Understanding of the Role of Religion in Politics for Soka Gakkai?” JAWS conference, Oslo, April 2007.
• ‘Young Soka Gakkai Members as Political Actors.’ INFORM/CESNUR conference, LSE, London, April 2008. (Another version of this paper appears in JAWS newsletter No. 42, April 2008).
• ‘Gramsci and a Religious Movement for Cultural Change’, JAWS conference, Austin, Texas March 2010.
• ‘Protecting Soka Gakkai? Komeito’s Role in Politics from the Perspective of the Supporter’, BAJS Conference, SOAS, London September 2010.

Expertise

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Available for

Regional Expertise

• East Asia

Country Expertise

• Japan

Languages

Publications