(this article below can be re-read by new SGI people)
Whatever happened to the Soka Gakkai Victims Association?
[
www.culteducation.com]
Japan fears another religious sect
San Francisco Chronicle/December 27, 1995
...Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist group with $100 billion in assets, has been accused of heavy-handed fund raising and proselytizing, as well as intimidating its foes and trying to grab political power
...Takashi Shokei, a professor of culture and sociology at Tokyo's Meisei University, goes further, calling Ikeda "a power-hungry individual who intends to take control of the government and make Soka Gakkai the national religion.''
...the debate over Soka Gakkai is conducted in guarded whispers. Few critics or legal authorities will speak on the record about allegations against the group, saying they fear retaliation.
...Like Aum Shinri Kyo, Soka Gakkai is headed by a controversial figure bent on rising to the highest level of power in Japan. And like Aum, the group is shrouded in mystery.
...Other Soka Gakkai members have told stories of violent intimidation and death threats against critics of the sect and those who have tried to quit the group.
...Ikeda's public image is one of a charismatic leader, but he has been known to display a violent temper.
A videotape filmed at a 1993 Ikeda speech to followers in Santa Monica, later released by a disgruntled former sect member, shows Ikeda yelling and pounding on tables in anger and later railing against President Clinton for having refused to meet with him.