Great Construction

RELIGION AND POLITICS

　　It is strange that although there is deep interdependence between politics and religion, people have not paid much attention to this interdependence until today. Or rather, the real situation before the end of World War II was that people did not want religion to participate in politics; actually religion had been persecuted by the political power of those days. This is the phenomena which have been seen in all quarters through all the ages and some religions were persecuted so severely that their religious activities were almost wiped out from the earth for some time; there were many such examples. But even if religion tries to build an ideal world as its goal, and advance human welfare, it will be a logical consequence that the goal can never be achieved as long as politics does not improve. In this respect, good politics requires good politicians and it is impossible to be good politicians without having religious sensibilities. So I think it is necessary to weave religious elements into politics in order to realize an ideal society in the future.

　　What politicians are most likely to lapse into in Japan, my concern here is not about foreign countries, is bribery: their weakest point. However, I can say this is because they are materialistic-oriented politicians with no religious sensibilities. What we desperately demand for the future is just that religious politicians appear one after another, only which will be able to give us hope of our national development in the future.

　　Facing with building up a newborn Japan, I think that we must cultivate religious passion especially among politicians, so that religious politicians will practice politics here in Japan. Now each time people open their mouth, they mention the corruption of politics, election fraud, bribery of officials, tax evasion among the people, degradation of educators, etc., and that's precisely so. Attempting to clean up this so muddy-dirty society, each person concerned and the public in general as well as statesman and administrators are struggling with these situations, and as the preventive measures, they resort only to the legal force; this is a total deviation from the fundamentals. The reason is that the roots of crimes are the souls themselves in human inside. To purify these souls is the very method which brings the best results, which, I believe, cannot be actualized unless through the right faith in true religion.

Miscellaneous Topics Related to Religious Faith, September 5, 1948 (the 23rd year of Showa)

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This essay, or chapter rather, has previously appeared in translation once. The citations are given below for reference. Please note that for many years “January 25, 1949” was thought to be the earliest known source for Shinkô Zatsuwa, and this date or simply the year “1949” may cited.

“Religion and Government,” Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 222.


“Religion and Politics,” A Hundred Teachings of Meishusama, no date, page 32.