-		Assemblywoman Death Shrouded in Mystery
	-		City Politician Apparently Leaps to Her Death
	-		Politician’s Kin Target Soka Gakkai
	-		Soka Gakkai Files Complaint Against Weekly
	-		Q & A With President Akiya
	-		Police: Assemblywoman Committed Suicide
	-		Disbandment Request Filed Against Soka Gakkai
	-		Soka Gakkai Slag Far From the Truth
	-		Kodansha Loses Soka Gakkai Suit
			Courts Rule Against Weeklies, Asaki Families in Higashi Murayama Libel Suits
	-		Shukan Gendai Apologizes to Soka Gakkai
			Soka Gakkai Wins the Case Completely
	-		Tokyo District Court Gives a Crushing Blow

In 1995, Akiyo Asaki, an outspoken anti-Soka Gakkai city council member in Higashi-Murayama City, was charged with shoplifting. A few months later, she would fall to her death from a sixth floor building in an apparent suicide attempt. Her husband and daughter, Daito and Naoko Asaki, soon began to publicly proclaim that the Soka Gakkai and the local police conspired to kill Mrs. Asaki.

By October 1995, the Soka Gakkai filed suit against the Asakis and the weekly tabloids publishing the Asakis unsubstantiated accusations. Two months later, the Higashi-Murayama Police Department officially concluded that there was “no evidence of criminality” in Asaki’s death and that she died from “suicide caused by remorse over a shoplifting charge.”

At one point, the Asakis called the disbandment of the Soka Gakkai, promoting that the Soka Gakkai violated the Religious Corporation Law. Their call against the Soka Gakkai also found its way to the floor of the Diet (Japan’s Parliament) and prompted questions from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Lacking merit and evidence, the Asakis would later drop their case.

Eventually, the Soka Gakkai would prevail and the courts would find the Asakis and the weekly tabloids libel for defamation. The publishing company, Kodansha, was also forced to print a retraction.

1994				Journalist Masao Otsukotsu begins writing articles hostile to the Soka Gakkai using statements from Akiyo Asaki, a Higashi Murayama City Councilwoman.
1995				Akiyo Asaki and her daughter, Naoko, are elected to the City Council. Naoko declines her seat; offers it to her runner-up, Mr. Hozumi Yano. (In August 1997, the Supreme Court would later rule that award of the seat to the runner-up was invalid.)
		July 12		Akiyo Asaki is charged with stealing a T-shirt from a clothing store.
		Sept. 1		Asaki jumps to her death from the sixth floor of a building.
		Sept. 23		Daito and Naoko Asaki, husband and daughter of the late City Councilwoman, publicly charge the Soka Gakkai with complicity in the death of Akiyo Asaki.
		Nov. 10		Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members of the Japanese Diet use the Asaki case in an attempt to discredit the Soka Gakkai.
		Dec. 22		The Higashi Murayama Police officially announce finding no facts to indicate foul play in the death of Akiyo Asaki.
1996		Aug. 7		Daito and Naoko Asaki and Hozumi Yano file a libel suit against Soka Gakkai leaders, the police and the owner of the clothing store who accused Ms. Asaki.
				Daito and Naoko Asaki and Hozumi Yano request an order for the Soka Gakkai to be disbanded based on the Religious Corporation Law.
1997		April 14		The Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office officially announced that the death of Akiyo Asaki could not be considered murder because there was no evidence indicating a crime and “the probability of suicide is too high.”
2001		May 15		The Tokyo High Court upholds Lower Court rulings that Daito and Naoko Asaki defamed the Soka Gakkai.
		May 18		The Tokyo High Court upholds Lower Court rulings that the publishing company, Kodanasha, defamed the Soka Gakkai.
2002		Oct. 29		The Tokyo Supreme Court dismisses the final appeal of both cases.