Great Construction

The Twenty-First Century, Preface

     Often asked of me is what kind of world is the paradise on earth that I advocate. Paradise on earth is the condition of the world a century from now as revealed to me by God in 1926. I have often wanted to write on this subject, but it seemed too soon to do so. In recent days, though, I have continued to feel that the time has now come when I must take up my pen and put the revelation to paper. Whether the picture as contained in the revelation’s account of the future will actually be realized or not, I leave to the imagination of the reader. I myself firmly believe that it will.
     And, finally I would like readers to understand that this work was written on the premise that they have awakened from a one-hundred-year sleep and are surprised by how much the world has changed. Please read the following in this vein.

“Nijûisseiki”

A translation of the chapter “Nijûisseiki,” from the planned publication Nijûisseiki (The Twentieth Century) has not been completed for this site as yet. The publication was never completed while Meishu-sama was alive, but the chapter “Nijûisseiki” was published posthumously in the Japanese-language original of Mokichi Okada’s biography, Tôhô no Hikari 1981 (English translation, The Light from the East, 1983, 1986). This citation is given below for reference.

    “The Twenty-first Century,” The Light from the East, Volume 2, 1986, page 256.

A Society Without Evil

     About such subjects as politics, economics, and the composition of society of which I will write there is an important point that should be first understood. That is, that when good and evil are compared, until the mid-twentieth century there was rather more evil than virtue in the world but that situation has been completely reversed. Now, there is more virtue and less evil. Readers may think nothing is more foolish, but there is a good reason. To begin, he says, this reason will be explained.
     The main cause as to why evil had its own way during the twentieth century and before was because it took a long time for evil to be exposed. Take the example of an evil person. Even if this person committed evil, it could have taken one or two or even more decades until that evil was uncovered. In the meantime, that evil person succeeded in the world. As evil was committed, it was not discovered and the act was taken for good, so evil deeds were repeated and success continued. Other members of the public saw what was happening and followed the lead. Thus, the prevalence of evil persons. Though the laws and ordnances were plentiful, and the police, judicial and related authorities utilized their institutions and methods to the utmost to prevent evil, crime did not decrease as anticipated. Rather than decrease, evil showed every sign of increase. An important reason for the success of evil must have lain hidden, but the reason for the prevalence of evil was discovered.
     In point of fact, more significant than the discovery itself of the success of evil was the change in the times.

Politics

     When writing about politics, probably an important consideration is the conduct of political parties. Of course, the democracy in the world of a hundred years ago was the basis of what gradually developed, with the integration of all classes, into the politics of today. Democracy nowadays could be called class democracy. In any type of society, the people can be divided into three levels. And, each level can further be divided into three more sub-levels, for a total of nine levels altogether. In concrete terms, in situations like public gatherings or ceremonies, the seating order divides itself naturally by such factors as the housing situation, clothing, and so on of the participants into the three classes of upper, intermediate, and lower. With this arrangement, members of the public do not only think of the benefit of their own class, attempt to encroach upon other classes, and cause strife, as was done in the twentieth century. All members of society are satisfied with the life within the framework of their own class and are quite desirous of the improvement of health and material advantages of those in other classes. Although harmonious relations exist among the classes, individual accomplishments can improve the entire condition of a person’s class, and likewise, individual failings do of course lower the whole condition of the person’s class. The lowering of a class in this way is a sort of punitive provision. For governing, from each class representatives are chosen in elections to serve in a chamber for their respective class. The parliamentary term is rather short, set for once in the spring and once in the autumn. The term lasts only about twenty days. Here, I should add that holidays differ from the weekly system of before. People now have a day off for every ten days, that is, three times a month, and the day off is on a set date, the third or the fifth, for example. The previous weekly system of holidays was a bit inconvenient, especially for Japanese who found it difficult to remember what day of the week it was. Tenth-day holidays are easier to remember, nothing is so convenient. For this reason, the parliamentary sessions do not last a full three weeks, but twenty days. During an entire year, parliament meets for the short period of only forty days, but it is rather efficient because pending bills are all acted upon. Dear Reader! In the twentieth century political parties often only opposed an issue for the sake of opposing, and when considering bills placed their party interests above the national and people’s interests, they wrangled over bills and spent days trying to draw out discussions inevitably lengthening parliamentary terms, so politics always left citizens with an unpleasant feeling.
     Generally speaking, there are two large political parties, but nowadays, when taking office, we do not say that one of the two political parties “takes power.” This may sound a bit unpleasant, like a dictatorship, but what it means is that in governing each party yields harmoniously and smoothly to the other. Because the purpose of politics is only the promotion of the welfare of humanity and as party interests are not the main concern, both sides reach agreement on many points of policy even though there are two large parties. The phrase “collapse of the cabinet” is not possible as it was in the old days. Now it is called a “change in cabinet.” Of course, laws are passed with the approval of all three chambers. The present number of laws and regulations are very few, no more than one tenth the number that existed in the twentieth century, and the trend is for the number to continue to decrease each year. In this sense, the national legislature is not a law-making body but a law-abolishing body. The numbers of government offices and officials, therefore, have been decreasing since the start of the century. The police and judicial authorities, and those government offices concerned with the law particularly operate on a much smaller scale than in days past.
     Let me add a word about general elections. Procedures here are also quite simple. Candidates announce themselves and their names are officially published. Dear readers, remember elections in the twentieth century! They were so ridiculous because candidates spent millions on getting elected. Dozens of helpers were needed to manage campaigns, with electioneering cars, meal expenses, allowances, posters, postage, and printing fees pushing costs way above millions. And, running in an election was not limited to the rich. There were many politicians who were always short of money and used backhanded means to come up with their election expenses. These illicit means led to scandalous problems and political figures then got entailed in the legal system. One hundred years later, as election campaigns consist of nothing more than advertisements in newspapers, one’s person’s campaign does not cost more than ten thousand yen including various sundry costs. Moreover, because candidates and their helpers avoid wasting time, the benefit to the national economy is immense.
     Another aspect, about the economic system, amazed me. Dear Reader, do not be surprised. It appears there are no taxes in the national economy. People in the twentieth century indeed suffered from taxes. Just thinking back about how oppressive taxes were, on this one point alone, the people’s happiness is probably great. Readers may ask, even if the government does not tax, how can the economy operate without taxes if not by magic? The question is reasonable, and the following explanation concerning economic organizations will be more than enough for understanding.
     First of all, there are two types of economic organizations. One type are incorporated entities that are big enterprises. One third of the profits of these large enterprises is distributed to the government, one third is income that goes to the capitalists involved in the enterprise, and one third, to the clerical and other workers involved in the enterprise. Small- and medium-sized enterprises are organized into unions, and the profits are collected by a particular union as a unit and distributed by thirds in the same way as those for the large enterprises.

Unpublished manuscript, 1948
    translated by cynndd