Paper short abstract:

Taniguchi Masaharu, the founder of a Japanese New Thought group Seichō no Ie, argued about political economy as well as spiritual therapy. This paper aims at clarifying the relation between his political, economic and spiritual ideas, against the social and historical circumstances of his time.

Paper long abstract:

After World War I, Japan encountered a continuous economic crisis. Chronic depression, unemployment rate and economic inequality were increasing. This crisis caused the spread of socialist and communist movements. The Japanese government banned such activities and arrested many communists, while some of them converted and joined right-wing social reform movements. The reformation of the politico-economic regime was a concern for both left and right wing groups. Under these circumstances, Taniguchi Masaharu (1893-1985), a former adherent of another new religious group, Ōmoto, started publishing his original magazine named Seichō no Ie. His activities grew into the new religious organization Seichō no Ie, which is also known as the largest New Thought denomination in Japan. Like American New Thought groups, its main aim is to give people salvation through spiritual and psychotherapeutic technologies. While established religions and journalists often criticized Seichō no Ie and called it "jakyō" (heresy), Taniguchi's writings attracted in the 1930s members from the middle class, including converts from left wing groups and, after World War II, became also influential among right-wing and nationalistic political movements.

That means that his ideas and activities had a strong political aspect. Previous studies have generally focused on Taniguchi's nationalism as well as spiritualist ideas. Indeed, Taniguchi frequently argued about economic issues and proposed projects of social reform. In addition, he originally established Seichō no Ie in 1934, not as a religious organization but as a joint-stock company based on his idea of spiritual economy; the company's main business was the publication of Taniguchi's books, but it was later registered as a religious association. He strongly insisted that the joint-stock company was a new religious form that was able to distribute wealth to every stockholder-adherent. Considering that leftists were also interested in Seichō no Ie, his way of thinking about economics is also important for investigating the mutual influences between political developments and spiritualist thought in Japan. This paper aims at clarifying Taniguchi's idea of political economy and at considering how this is related to nationalism and spiritual therapy, while taking the social and historical circumstances of the period into account.