Editing Komeito (section)

===Relationship with ''Soka Gakkai''===
Komeito regards the [[Soka Gakkai]] as a "major electoral constituency",<ref name="about view">{{cite web |title=About Us: On Politics and Religion |url=http://www.komei.or.jp/en/about/view.html |access-date=16 November 2016 |publisher=Komeito}}</ref> having formally separated from the religious group and revised both its platform and regulations in 1970 to reflect a "secular orientation".<ref name="Aruga 2000">{{cite book |last=Aruga |first=Hiroshi |title=Global Citizens |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-19-924039-6 |editor1-last=Machacek |editor1-first=David |chapter=Chapter 4: Soka Gakkai and Japanese Politics |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first=Bryan}}</ref>{{rp|117}} Observers continue to describe Komeito as the Soka Gakkai's "political arm",<ref>{{cite book |last=Métraux |first=Daniel A. |title=The Soka Gakkai Revolution |publisher=University Press of America |year=1994 |location=Lanham |pages=42, 55}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Corduan |first=Winfried |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yba83tvjvZEC&pg=PA479 |title=Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions |date=2012-10-22 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-3970-4 |page=479 |language=en |quote=The Komeito severed its organizational ties to SG in 1970, but has nonetheless remaind the political arm of Sokka Gakkai in Japan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7iLBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |title=Buddhist Politics: Japan's Clean Government Party |date=2012-12-06 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-94-010-2996-4 |page=13 |language=en |quote=even today, the Clean Government Party can hardly be called more than the "political arm" of Soka Gakkai}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1= Rich |first1= Motoko |last2= Notoya |first2= Kiuko |last3= Ueno|first3= Hisako | date= 2024-10-26 |title= For First Time in Decades, Japan Votes in a Knife-Edge Election |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/26/world/asia/japan-election.html |work= The New York Times |location= New York, United States |quote = ...Komeito, a political affiliate of Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist sect. |access-date=2024-10-27}}</ref> however, and critics contend the relationship violates the separation of religion and politics enshrined in Article 20 of the [[Constitution of Japan|Japanese Constitution]].<ref name="Okuyama 2010">{{cite journal |last=Okuyama |first=Michiaki |date=Spring 2010 |title=Soka Gakkai As a Challenge to Japanese Society and Politics |url=http://www.politicsandreligionjournal.com/images/pdf_files/srpski/godina4_broj1/6%20-%20okuyama%20michiaki.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Politics and Religion |volume=IV |issue=1 |page=84 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226023948/http://www.politicsandreligionjournal.com/images/pdf_files/srpski/godina4_broj1/6%20-%20okuyama%20michiaki.pdf |archive-date=2015-02-26 |quote=After its religious orientation was criticized by journalists and questioned in the Diet around 1970, Komeito declared that it would follow the constitutional principle of the separation between religion and state, officially separating Soka Gakkai and Komeito. But this issue continues even today as one of the targets of criticism against Soka Gakkai and Komeito.}}</ref> The leadership and financing of the two groups are currently said to be independent.<ref name="Aruga 2000" />{{rp|123–27}} Both groups report having occasional liaison meetings, characterizing them as informational and "open to the media".<ref name="about view" /><ref>{{cite report |title=Soka Gakkai Annual Report 2015 |date=1 February 2015 |publisher=Soka Gakkai Public Relations Office |page=72 |quote=協議会では、公明党から、党の方針、態度、決定等について説明があり、それに対して学会が意見、要望を述べる。[At the council, Komeito explains the party's policies, attitudes, decisions, etc., and the Gakkai gives opinions and requests.]}}</ref> Numerous Japanese religious groups have established political parties in Japan, but statistics scholar Petter Lindgren states that "None have, however, been more successful than Soka Gakkai."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lindgren |first1=Petter Y. |date=2016 |title=Komeito's security ideals and collective self-defense: betwixt pacifism and compromises |journal=East Asia |volume=33 |issue=3 |page=235 |doi=10.1007/s12140-016-9256-8 |s2cid=148386681}}</ref>