EXTRA EXTRA: Soka Gakkai Finances

From SGIwhistleblowers:

You Can't Make This Stuff Up #3A

Excerpt from "Remembering Daisaku Ikeda: My 50 Years with the King of Vanity" by Junya Yano, former chairman of the Komeito

--------------------

The last time I worked on behalf of the Soka Gakkai as politician was in the dealings with the National Tax Agency. From 1990-91, the Gakkai was audited by the NTA.

"They say they want to investigate. It seems very serious."

It was Einosuke Akiya, then president of the Soka Gakkai, who sought my help. By this time I had already retired to senior advisor and thought a sitting party leader would be better suited. So I demurred, "Why not have Ichikawa handle it?" At the time Yuichi Ichikawa was the general secretariat, with Koshiro Ishida as the chairperson. 

Truth be told, I had had enough by this time. In 1988, the year before I resigned as party chair, the Parliament was debating the implementation of a national consumption tax. The Komeito was against it, and we fought vigorously against the Liberal Democratic Party. But one day Prime Minister Takeshita approached me and said, "Yano-san, I hear that your 'patriarch' is in favor of it." That came as a complete shock. Mr. Ikeda's message, I was told, had been relayed to him via a phone call from Vice President Hisami Yamazaki. I angrily confronted VP Yamazaki, who replied, "That's right. Sensei's orders." I was completely disgusted. I'm sure the intent was to curry favors with the administration, but the Komeito would be a complete jackass being bypassed like that. 

But Mr. Akiya was unrelenting in having me deal with the NTA, even to the point of personally visiting my home in Kansai. "Sensei insists that you attend to this matter." It was infuriating but in the end I reluctantly accepted, intending this to be my last service. The Gakkai's chief legal counsel Masatomo Yamazaki [no relation to the VP - Delbert] had by this time defected, so I worked with his successor Mr. Yorio Yahiro.

It wasn't completely without reason that Mr. Ikeda relied on me for this matter. Having served for over 20 years as Komeito's general secretariat, I had many contacts with career bureaucrats, including those in the Ministry of the Treasury and the National Tax Agency. Indeed, nobody was better suited than I to beg for merciful treatment.

Mr. Yahiro handed me a document outlining the Soka Gakkai's six non-negotiable points:

1. Do not allow them to investigate the Gakkai's public interest accounting as religious corporation.
2. They may request a list of high-end zaimu contributors, but absolutely refuse to comply.
3. Do not turn over the inventory of assets.
4. Do not allow them to investigate the Daiichi Shomu, Pres. Ikeda's personal secretary division.
5. Addressing the conflict of official/private interests concerning Pres. Ikeda is strictly off limits.
6. Gakkai-owned artworks are also off limits.

The reasoning behind #2 was to prevent the NTA from interviewing these top donors. If by any chance there is a discrepancy between the amount they say they donated and the amount actually reported, it could invite suspicion & further inquiry. Regarding #4, because the Daiichi Shomu serves Mr. Ikeda even down to his day-to-day living, investigations into the group could lead to questions about Mr. Ikeda's personal finance. No matter what, we were having to navigate through a minefield. 

A religious corporation is basically exempt from taxation when it comes to incomes directly linked to faith activities. This is "public interest accounting." Other enterprises (like the Seikyo Shimbun, for example) would be categorized under "revenue accounting." The latter was subject to taxation but still at a relatively low level; but even then, the Gakkai was extremely vague about distinguishing the two accounts. Many items that should have been classified "revenue" would often be reported "public interest," and all in all it was haphazard to say the least. 

The most egregious cases concerned Mr. Ikeda himself. It goes without saying that personal expenses and corporate accounts must be separate, but in the Gakkai the line was left murky. For example, over the years the Gakkai organization had footed the bills for acquiring various artworks of Mr. Ikeda's choosing from all over the world. But Mr. Ikeda's personal hobby needs to be recognized as such, and the artworks should be classified as personal estate. Not surprisingly, the NTA agents demanded to inspect the artworks themselves, along with the inventory of assets. Following the 6 directives, I desperately fended off their inquiries. "The artworks are stored away together with amateur works by members and will not be easy categorizing them..." "We're working on the inventory..."

The NTA had indeed sent in their best & the brightest. The agents precisely isolated the problem areas and threatened to address the 6 points. 

TO BE CONTINUED