This might or might not be the place and time to ask this question, but Greg's post about the fellow in the shop being a little unkind sort of reminded me of this...
In my (very limited) experience with both Japanese people and foreign ex-pats living in Japan, there seems to be an almost universal opinion that the "people who stand around chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" are kind of freaks apparently obsessed with magic and getting rich by chanting this mantra.
Now I don't mean to imply that this is my opinion. None of these people (in my recollection) ever even used the word "Nichiren" (or for that matter "Buddhist") in reference to these people they were deriding. Only one day when Greg was talking about Nichiren Buddhism did I make the connection between these people and Greg and Nichiren Buddhism.
One particularly noteworthy point here is that none of these times when this rather unfriendly opinion came up were in the context of discussions of Buddhism, religion, or anything of the sort... more often in the context of talking about (to put it generously) "odd people".
Since it seems like everyong who reads this is a Nichiren Buddhist, can anyone explain all of this to me? Does Nichiren really have such a bad rap in Japan? Is it just the people I happen to know? Is there some other group of people that they are talking about, and maybe I am incorrectly associating "those" folks with Nichiren Buddhism?
All of this is just for my own clarification, but it all kind of came back into my mind in a flash when the shop keeper was not too nice to Greg.

Kinda thought someone(s) would have lept at this, guess not...

Look for a reply in my next blog, this is just too big for a reply...

Rev. Greg

Oops...

In my (very limited) experience with both Japanese people and foreign ex-pats living in Japan, there seems to be an almost universal opinion that the "people who stand around chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" are kind of freaks apparently obsessed with magic and getting rich by chanting this mantra.

Yes, its all true, we are all seen as freaks standing around chanting for money. I have many times asked why we are seen this way, The standard answers appear to be:

1. You chant for money, we do not. The only time we do is at New Year when we go to the temple to pray for a good year and have to pay for this privilege.
2. You are perceived as a cult.
3. You are associated with a political party that does have some power in the Diet.
4. You survived without a priesthood, all religions need a priesthood
5. You are a rich organization and have that rich and powerful leader President Ikeda who has done all kinds of bad things
6. You seem to win most legal cases that you enter into because you have influence
7. Your people do seem to end up getting money, must be magic since you cant be a religion with no priests
8. You build large expensive Kaikans at the drop of a hat.

And it is usually true that none of these people used the word "Nichiren" (or for that matter "Buddhist") in reference to these people they are deriding, Instead they refer to them as Sokka Gakkai members. They have a really hard time seeing us as anything else. This is not really that surprising since The Sokka Gakkai are on a media blitz campaign with their newspapers and various publications. Although the content contains a lot of Buddhism, it mostly has to do with PR for President Ikeda and the organization. I mean, lets be honest, he gets more media coverage than the Emperor and all the members of the government put together. With all this media frenzy it is all to easy for them to forget we are Buddhists and just view us as part of a rich and powerful cult. We should also remember that we are only one of a large number of groups that has Nichiren at their Apex, but these other groups do not have our monies, properties or political influence. These smaller groups are seen as religions, we because of how large we have become are not. The public are also very aware that we got booted out by our priesthood because our money, influence and growth were seen as a direct challenge to the authority of the priesthood. Well if you were Joe Soap out there in public land and you read all this, you would probably also have the same feeling for Sokka Gakkai members.
In short, to much emphasis has been placed on President Ikeda and the Organization, and not enough on the simple people who do all these activities and are responsible for the spreading of this Buddhism. I believe we have very stupidly put the "Cart before the Horse"and the results are already very apparent.