Agreed.
I think I found what religious group the shooter was talking about:
A Buddhist based group called Soka Gakkai, at least according to a professor, Bolton Thomas, from the University of Pennsylvania. It has an associated political party called Komeito.
Not Bolton Thomas, spell correction be damaged, but Jolyon Thomas ...
Thanks for your link.
It’s not new thing:
The Power of Japan’s Religious Party (December 4, 2014)
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/the-power-japans-religious-party
As has been the case for every Japanese electoral contest since the mid-1950s, thousands of people across Japan right now are receiving solicitations from Gakkai adherents to vote for Soka Gakkai’s affiliated party Komeito, the “Clean Government Party.” Meanwhile, Gakkai members are turning out en masse to cheer for Komeito and coalition partner LDP candidates at rallies; mapping out local businesses to target for candidate support; and compiling lists of relatives, school friends, and acquaintances, however far-flung, to solicit in a practice called f-tori: “friend-getting,” a vote-gathering tactic that circumvents Japan’s prohibition on house-to-house campaigning.
No other Japanese group can out-mobilize Soka Gakkai when it comes to electioneering. It is this unmatched voting power that inspires accusations from religious and political rivals that Soka Gakkai and Komeito violate Japan’s constitutionally-guaranteed separation of religion and state. This same power cements the coalition partnership between Komeito and the LDP.
But why are Soka Gakkai members so intensely engaged in electioneering? Does policy play a role in Gakkai support of Komeito? And is there a limit to compromises Soka Gakkai vote-gatherers are willing to accept before they stop supporting the LDP–and Komeito itself?