boblog「マーキュリー通信」no.1148 【私の異見・ひと言申す-96「これぞマスコミのあるべき姿」 】

　今や第4の権力、しかも最大の力を持つに到ったマスコミ、しかし、そのマスコミの暴走には目に余るモノがあります。

　前回の、小泉郵政民営化選挙も小泉首相のパフォーマンスだけがマスコミに派手に喧伝された為に、郵政民営化の中味も吟味されないまま、ムードで小泉自民党が大勝利を収めました。

　今回は、政権交代だけがクローズアップされ、北朝鮮からのミサイル攻撃という最大の日本国の危機に対し、殆ど議論されないまま選挙戦に突入です。そして、取り敢えず民主党に天下を取らせてみようというムードだけが先行して、民主党の大勝利が確実視されています。
　
　こんな政策論議不毛の中で、日本の国情を憂え、幸福実現党が新党を結党しました。同党は、２１世紀は、日本国を根本から大改造し、繁栄する明るい日本の未来を創るべく、ビジョンを掲げ、その為のマニフェストを作成しました。

同党の主要政策は、
１．消費税の廃止、相続税、贈与税の廃止を中心とした減税による景気浮揚
２．現実味を帯びてきた北朝鮮から核ミサイル攻撃に対する具体的防止策
３．３億人国家構想による年金問題の解決。衰退していく活気のない少子高齢化社会ではなく、発展し

ていく多子活力社会を目指す。
４．リニアモーターカー構想による交通革命
５．イジメを無くす教育改革
その他多数の魅力的な政策を掲げています。１つ１つなるほどと唸るものばかりです。
どれも既成の政党にない新鮮な政策ばかりです。

　幸福実現党は、自民、民主も実施していない全選挙区に候補者を出すという力の入れようです。

　これだけの革新的な新党ができたにもかかわらず、日本のマスコミは裏協定により殆ど取り上げようとしません。国民の事実を知ろうとする権利を無視しており、明らかに公正取引に違反しています。

　そんな日本の旧態依然としたマスコミに対し、本日JapanTimesに幸福実現党の取材記事が大々的に取上げられました。取材した事実をたんたんと取り上げています。上に掲げた政策を始めとし、幸福実現党の母体となっている幸福の科学の設立経緯も詳しく紹介されています。
　
　幸福実現党の大川隆法総裁を仏陀の再誕と紹介し、1981年に大悟し、全人類救済の使命を悟ったこと等詳しく書かれている。こういう紹介の仕方も日本のマスコミでは考えられないことです。

　もちろんマスコミとして幸福の科学に対し疑問もぶつけている。90年代オウム真理教が政界進出し、それと同一視している国民もおり、中には宗教団体に対し警戒心を抱いている国民もいる。
　これに対し、幸福実現党大川隆法総裁は政策の中味が全く違うことで切り返している。

　下記は本日のJapanTimesの幸福実現党に関する全文記事ですが、これぞマスコミのあるべき姿と感心しながら読みました。日本のマスコミも本来のあるべき姿に回帰して欲しいと強く願います。

JapanTimesの記事は編集後記の後に掲載しています。

◆◆◆◆◆◆編集後記◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
　
　オウム真理教は危険な宗教団体であり、未曾有の国難をもたらすことを幸福の科学は訴え続けてきま

した。しかし、宗教団体がそんな危険な行為をするわけがないという先入観の下、取り合ってくれませ

んでした。

　今回は、幸福実現党が、北朝鮮がいつ核ミサイルを日本に撃ち込んでくるかもしれないという危険性

を訴えています。しかし、国家がそんなことをするわけないだろうという根拠のない先入観で国もマス

コミも取り上げようとしません。
　　
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆※新しくできた幸福実現党のサポーターをしています。
マニフェストができました。こちらをご覧下さい。
テーマは、「国民に夢を与える繁栄する明るい未来社会の建設です」
[link]http://www.hr-party.jp/index.html

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009

THE ZEIT GIST
Party offers a third way: happiness
New force vows to allow in millions more foreigners, attack North Korea if voters tick the 'Happy' box

By DAVID McNEILL
As a historic general election looms on Aug. 30, Japan's long-suffering electorate faces a clear choice: vote for the conservative party that has virtually monopolized power since 1955, or opt for its more liberal but untested rival, which promises long-awaited reform.

For those with a taste for the apocalyptic, however, there is always the Happiness Realization Party.

There is another: According to the Happiness Realization Party's Web site, President Ryuho Okawa is a reincarnation of Buddha who achieved Great Enlightenment in 1981 "and awakened to the hidden part of his consciousness, El Cantare, whose mission is to bring happiness to all humanity." COURTESY OF THE HAPPINESS REALIZATION PARTY Offering what it calls a "third choice," the Happies have an eye-catching manifesto:

multiply Japan's population by 2 1/2 to 300 million and make it the world's No. 1 economic power, and rapidly rearm for conflict with North Korea and China. If elected, the party's lawmakers will invite millions of foreigners to work here, inject religion into all areas of life, and fight to overcome Japan's "colonial" mentality, which has "fettered" the nation's true claim to global leadership.

A Happiness commercial posted on YouTube last week lays out the stakes. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is preparing to nuke Tokyo's Imperial Palace, bring Japan to its knees and enslave its people. "Japan will be unable to do anything about this because of its Constitution," Kim sneers in the clip, referring to the so-called pacifist clause — Article 9 — of the 1947 document, written under U.S. Occupation, which renounces the right to wage

war.

Against pictures of a mushroom cloud exploding over Tokyo and red ink slowly drowning the nation, the narrator warns that China ultimately lurks behind this plot. "With a population of 1.3 billion, China will rule the world," intones the voice of Kim. "And North Korea will be No. 2." Neither the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, nor their likely successors, the Democratic Party of Japan, have an answer to this threat, says the party. "The very existence of the nation hangs in the balance."

For those wondering how the narrator is privy to the thoughts of the world's most reclusive leader, the answer is simple: The Happies have a hotline direct to his subconscious.

A book released recently, "The Guardian Spirit of Kim Jong Il Speaks," by party founder and President Ryuho Okawa, explains that the voice of Kim's "guardian spirit" warned him of the North's plans. Okawa also tunes into the thoughts of Japan's wartime monarch, Emperor Hirohito, and his deceased predecessors.

Being able to commune with the dead is but one string to Master Okawa's bow. A reincarnation of Buddha, the party's Web site records how he achieved Great Enlightenment in 1981 "and awakened to the hidden part of his consciousness, El Cantare, whose mission is to bring happiness to all humanity." Before he founded the Happy Science (Kofuku no Kagaku) religion in 1986 he wrote books in which he channeled the spirits of Muhammad, Christ, Buddha,

Confucius and Mozart. Conveniently, if improbably speaking in Japanese, the prophets had much the same message: Japan is the world's greatest power and should ditch its Constitution, rearm and lead the world.

Okawa, 53, a University of Tokyo graduate, has reportedly written 500 books — about 18 per year since he attained enlightenment. His wife, Kyoko, until last week the leader of the HRP

— Happy Science's political wing — is also a Buddhist saint: the reborn Aphrodite and the bodhisattva of wisdom and intellect.

So far at least, the press has largely ignored this exotic third way. For many, the Happies smell suspiciously like a cult, but they are certainly taking the election seriously. In a rare interview with the respected magazine Bungei Shunju last month, Master Okawa explained

that they have fielded candidates in every electoral district in the country — more than the ruling LDP. "Organizationally, we are stronger than either the LDP or DPJ," he boasted,

citing Happy Science's network of believers.

Asked if it was true that he decided to enter politics after being contacted by the spirits, he replied: "Yes, it's true. But it's up to people to decide whether to believe it or not."

The Happies claim to have distributed 11 million copies of their bible, "Shoshin Hogo" ("The Dharma of the Right Mind"), in Japan since 1986, and opened 200 local temples. Okawa's books, mixing new-age philosophy with extreme neoliberal views, have sold millions more,

reportedly providing the funding for their campaign. Startlingly, Okawa claims that 100 lawmakers in the Diet also support their beliefs. Although there is no independent proof of this, some lawmakers appear to be close to the party: former LDP politician and current Chiba Gov. Kensaku Morita, for example, published an article in Happy Science's monthly publication in 2008.

Followers say that after nearly two decades of economic and social problems that have sapped Japan's confidence, they are attracted to Okawa's support for a strong, resolute nation.

"Japan is pitiful today," says Hiroko Hirota, 52, a Happy Science member who works as a nurse in Tokyo. "We can't keep depending on the U.S. and the rest of the world. We have to stand up for ourselves."

Those views, and the Happies' program of radical conservatism and personal self-help, echo the Christian fundamentalist movement in the U.S., points out Tomohiro Machiyama, a journalist who was once sued by Happy Science for criticizing them in print. "It's the idea that you're the elite, the ones chosen by God. It's an attempt to bring social Darwinism to

Japanese politics."

In their quest to rebuild what they call a lively, powerful country, the Happies are also prepared to tackle a key political taboo, says Koichi Maeda, an election candidate for the party in Tokyo: opening the drawbridge to fortress Japan. "Other political parties only look at the problems in front of their faces; we're looking at 20, 30 years down the line, when we can no longer pay for the social security of our elders. We want to make this a country like America: open and genki."

As part of its project to create a "300 million-person nation by the year 2030" and "make Japan's GDP No. 1 in the world," the party promises to accept more immigrants. "People will

say that foreigners from Asia bring crime," accepts Maeda. "But people think like that because foreigners don't study Japanese and learn how to live here. We will change that situation."

Translating those beliefs into political power has proved easier said than done. Tokyo voters shunned the Happies' candidates in last month's municipal election. "Parties that are

too openly backed by a religious organization have a really hard time getting broader support in Japan," explains Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Tokyo's Sophia University.

New Komeito, the LDP's coalition partner, which is controversially backed by the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, has "real mobilization power," acknowledges Nakano. But he thinks it is unlikely that the Happies can rival them. "I doubt that the party has a comparable army of dedicated supporters, in spite of the public display of its money and clout."

Tokyoites had their fill of apocalyptic cults in the 1990s when Aum Shinrikyo — also led by a guru who could commune with the spirits — gassed the Tokyo subway in 1995 in a bizarre plot to take over the government. Twelve people died and 5,000 were injured in what remains Japan's worst terrorist attack. Machiyama sees obvious parallels with the Happies. "They

both attract people who consider themselves elites. Aum followers were highly educated but they were social losers. They wondered 'Why can't I get ahead?' "

But the Happies reject any comparisons with Aum, and indeed claim that Okawa foresaw the cult's crimes long before the police or media. "It was Master Okawa who warned the police that Aum was planning to spray sarin gas over Tokyo from above, which could have killed 1 million people," says HRP spokesman Yasunori Matsumoto.

Shoko Egawa, an investigative journalist who was almost murdered by Aum followers after she founded early alarm bells, has also noted the similarities — Aum famously turned deadly after its unappealing stew of religion, doomsday science and politics was rejected by voters in 1990. Its attack came as Japan struggled with the fallout from a profound economic

transition that has only deepened since. "The worry is what will happen to Happy Science after they fail in this election," says Egawa. "That's the unknown that we must think about."Okawa also rejects any talk of heading a cult, and says the lack of press interest in the party is unimportant. "We are only beginning," he told a group of 2,000 followers recently in Shinjuku. "The media has failed to recognize this. We will grow 10-fold, 100-fold, 1,000 -fold. This is not the work of humans, it is the work of God."

As he spoke, tears rolled down the face of one believer watching the speech on a monitor.

"It's beautiful," she said.

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