Tabloid Belated Apology

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.

1) NEWS

TABLOID WEEKLY PUBLISHES BELATED APOLOGY

The Japanese publisher of tabloid weekly Shukan Gendai, Kodansha Co., Ltd., has published a formal apology to the Soka Gakkai over an article the Japanese Supreme court concluded was libelous.

The apology was part of a verdict handed down on Oct. 29, 2002, in favor of the Soka Gakkai, which had sued the publisher and tabloid chief editor for defamation (see Justice Chronicle 158). Kodansha had paid the court-ordered damages, but refused to publish an official apology for four months. Kodansha, Japan's largest publishing house, complied with the order only after Soka Gakkai attorneys obtained a court injunction against the firm. The apology appeared in the tabloid's March 8 issue and admitted the 1995 article, accusing the Soka Gakkai of murdering a city assemblywoman eight years ago, caused significant harm to the reputation of the Soka Gakkai. Soka Gakkai legal counsel Akira Watanabe noted that since these sorts of apologies are increasingly rare in Japan, the publishing of the apology is a testament to he gravity of the article's malicious intent.

Published on Feb. 23, 1995, the Shukan Gendai article interviewed the husband and daughter of Higashi Murayama City Councilwoman Akiyo Asaki, who police and public prosecutor's office investigations discovered had committed suicide. The 2002 Supreme Court ruling upheld two lower court decisions that found Kodansha and Masahiko Motoki, the tabloid's former publisher and editor-in-chief, guilty of willful defamation.


DISTRICT COURT FINES NICHIREN SHOSHU AND PROXIES

The Tokyo District Court found Nichiren Shoshu and two other parties guilty of copyright infringement on Feb. 26, awarding the Soka Gakkai compensation in damages. The other two defendants are Kazuo Ogusa, leader of Nichiren Shoshu lay group Myokanko, which publishes the newspaper Emyo, and Shuichi Sanuki, head of the Association to Protect the Freedom of Religious Belief and Thought, a Myokanko political lobby. The Soka Gakkai filed suit for the unauthorized use of a Seikyo Press photograph on June 21, 2001.


The picture illegally appeared in a leaflet produced by the political lobby group in May 2001, criticizing the Soka Gakkai's ties to the New Komeito government party just prior to two major elections held that year. Although some 1 million leaflets were printed and stored at Myokanko temples and believers' homes for nationwide distribution, Soka Gakkai attorneys obtained a temporary court order prohibiting their release. The district court ruled that Nichiren Shoshu willfully took part in the illegal activities of Myokanko and its political lobby. It issued a permanent cease-and-desist order barring distribution, in addition to the payment of reparations.


2) RECENT GUIDANCE FROM SGI PRESIDENT IKEDA

This is an excerpt from a speech given Feb. 5 at the 25th Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting, held at the Soka International Friendship Hall in Tokyo.

BENEFIT FLOWS FORTH WHEN WE FIGHT AGAINST EVIL

Those who do not stand up against wrongdoing and injustice are not just. They are not strong. Rather, they are devious and self-serving.

Second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda often said quite strictly: People who are lax toward evil, people who do not fight against evil, no matter how good-natured they are or impressive they may appear on the surface, ultimately have no principles, no convictions. They have no real character, either. They are devious, self-serving individuals. Likewise, if leaders in our organization do not fight when the time comes, they will erase their good fortune.

In the Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, which elucidates the essential principles of Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Daishonin says with regard to the meaning of benefit (Jpn kudoku): The 'ku' of 'kudoku' means to extinguish evil, and 'doku' means to bring forth good (Gosho Zenshu, p. 762). This is one of my favorite passages.

In other words, benefit arises from eradicating evil and creating good. What wonderful benefits derive from fighting against evil! Doing so leads to our personal growth and development, to the construction of a state of absolute happiness.

The Daishonin repeatedly teaches that benefit flows forth when we fight against evil for the sake of kosen-rufu. When we do not, it does not. And he urges us to follow his example.

The Soka Gakkai is an organization of kosen-rufu, an organization based on sharing Nichiren Buddhism, that acts in complete accord with the Daishonin's teachings. It is an organization of supreme unity.

[The full text of this speech will appear in the March 7 and March 14 issues of the World Tribune.]