abstract:and/or Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a lay Buddhist movement linking more than 12 million people around the world, and is currently described as "the most diverse” Tricycle Magazine Interview: http://www.daisakuikeda.
Many people are uneasy about a party with ties to religious organizations - in this case, Komeito is linked to the controversial Buddhist Soka Gakkai - being in government.
Come next April, the deep-pocketed Soka Gakkai group which owns them intends to merge all three Buddhist-affiliated parties that splintered from the former Komeito (Clean Government Party) in 1994.
After the war, the group transformed itself into a lay religious organisation, adopting the name Soka Gakkai (Value-Creation Society), and embracing the faith of the 700-year-old Nichiren Shoshu sect.