Mishandling Remains

The Justice Chronicle, provided by Soka Gakkai International-USA, is a free monthly e-mail in support of the Soka Spirit movement. Soka Spirit is the SGI's educational effort to create value and deepen our understanding of Nichiren Buddhism through increased awareness of issues surrounding the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and the spiritual foundation of the SGI movement.

JOURNALIST MASAO OKKOTSU FOUND GUILTY OF LIBEL -- AGAIN

On Dec. 22, 2003, the Tokyo District Court ruled that Masao Okkotsu was guilty of libeling Gandhi scholar Neelakantha Radhakrishnan of India in an August 1, 2002 article in “Forum 21,” a newsletter published by the defendant. (This follows a decision last May in which the Tokyo High Court ruled against Otsukotsu in a libel suit brought by the Soka Gakkai. See JUSTICE CHRONICLE, No. 182.)

The article in question referred to the plaintiff as “an embarrassment to the people of India” and other denigrating descriptions. In his verdict, Justice Yoshihiro Katayama wrote that the “Forum 21” article had mistaken the plaintiff for another individual, an error he found to be “inexcusable” and “libelous.” Although Prof. Radhakrishan, a recipient of the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Award, had sought a large monetary settlement, the district court awarded a reduced amount in light of the newsletter’s limited circulation.

SUPREME COURT DISMISSES FINAL NICHIREN SHOSHU APPEAL ON MISHANDLING REMAINS

On Dec. 19, 2003, Japan’s Supreme Court dismissed a Nichiren Shoshu appeal seeking to overturn an earlier Tokyo High Court ruling that found head temple Taiseki-ji had illegally disposed the remains of the deceased kin of four families. In March 2000, the families filed suit against the priesthood, including chief administrator Nikken Abe, upon learning that it had buried, without their consent or knowledge, some 200 used rice sacks stuffed with remains in a field within the temple premises. (The plaintiffs, from Kanagawa, Osaka, Fukuoka and Ehime prefectures, had entrusted the cremated remains to a Taiseki-ji charnel house between 1968 and 1977. See JUSTICE CHRONICLE, No. 177.)

While a district court had sided with Nichiren Shoshu, the Tokyo High Court then overruled the decision in April 2003, ordering the defendant to pay damages to each family -- which the Supreme Court upheld. The latest ruling was the third handed down by the highest court in Japan against Nichiren Shoshu since June 2003.