by Hirotatsu Fujiwara, 1970

Nisshin Hodo Co.
Tokyo, Japan

Chapter Ten:

What Is The Political System Which
Komeito Advocates?

What Do They Mean By Party Politics?

What kind of party politics does Komeito aim at?  Does it occupy one section of the big two-party system or does it occupy one section between the conservatives vs. progressives? Should the Liberal Democratic Party be replaced as the ruling party? Can an alliance of opposition parties be formed?  To these questions they do not seem to have the answers.
Pretending to take as their model the English parliamentary government and developing their view of party government, in itself, if I may say so, is nothing but a kind of veil of party politics of Soka Gakkai-Komeito, which is their mask, and shows that what they really have in mind is something quite different. To take another nation as their model and let it go at that is the very thing which reveals the difference in the pattern on the outside and that on the inside.
The Nazis, until they became a one-party dictatorship, developed by lawful stages, day by day, planning the enlargement of their party's power, but as soon as they were able to obtain the majority, they immediately and substantially established the one-party dictatorship. Up to that time they never professed, "our plan is to adopt the one-party dictatorship." Even if a party was thinking of "dictatorship," essentially it inwardly aimed at a one-party dictatorship, but it would not be foolish enough to say this in a loud voice. It is in this way that Komeito advocates only the English form of parliamentary government, but what shape this will take in the future and just how they will develop their future politics  not having made themselves clear on these points, there are many questions which remain.
The Nazi type one-party dictatorship, must be seen to be different in character from that of the present Liberal Democratic Party.  We cannot defend too much the Liberal Democratic Party, but while being in charge of political power
for a long time, it cannot be said that they are planning fer the fixation of political power in a fascist-like dictatorship. Therefore, we cannot call the Liberal-Democratic Party a fascist power.  But on the occasion of the (mergence of Komeito's party politics, in the event that they extend their power, whether Komeito will stop without becoming a despotic political power, ni excess of the present-day Liberal Democratic Party's conservative despotism,-this is the problem. We cannot believe it only because of President Ikeda's gentlemanly diplomatic language.
As I have emphasized repeatedly, because of the character of Soka Gakkai, and the character of Komeito which has Soka Gakkai as its background, the peculiarity of this religiopolitical proup is such that no matter where we may look throughout the world, among countries with parliamentary democracy, we will not find anything to compare with it.
Such a political party, no matter how much it talks about the English parliamentary government,  cannot avoid being told that it is nothing except a sort of Soka Gakkai type "sutra."  Such suspicions remain as they always have.