JJRS > Volume 21 Issue 2-3 Attacks on the New Religions: Risshō Kōseikai and the “Yomiuri Affair”

Morioka Kiyomi

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The Risshō Kōseikai, one of the most successful of the modern Japanese New Religions, faced a crisis in the mid-1950s with what is known as the “Yomiuri Affair.” In only one of many forms through which the Risshō Kōseikai faced conflict, the Yomiuri Shinbun published a series of articles critical of the Kōseikai and its activities. The present essay examines the circumstances of the affair, analyzes the Kōseikai’s response, and investigates how the incident conditioned the society’s later development.