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Tokyo, June 24 (Reuters) - A woman who has filed a civil lawsuit claiming she was raped by the head of Soka Gakkai, one of Japan's biggest religious groups and a sponsor of a leading political party, on Monday denied she was politically motivated.
"I have never had contacts with any political figures in bringing the lawsuit," Nobuko Nobuhira, a former member of Soka Gakkai, told a news conference. She and her husband filed the damages suit on June 5.
Soka Gakkai is a Buddhist lay organisation led by Daisaku Ikeda. The group has denied Nobuhira's charges, saying she fabricated the whole affair out of resentment against them.
Soka Gakkai is the sponsor of the former Komeito, or the Clean Government Party, which merged with other parties in December 1994 to create the Shinshinto (New Frontier Party), now the biggest opposition party.
Soka Gakkai says it has a following of eight million households in Japan.
"Soka Gakkai's attorney announced the civil charges filed by Nobuko Nobuhira and her husband against Soka Gakkai honorary president Daisaku Ikeda are groundless fabrications motivated by personal resentment," the group said in a statement.
Nobuhira, 69, claimed she was raped by Ikeda three times -- in 1973, 1983 and 1991 -- at the group's seminary in Hakodate, on northern Japan's Hokkaido island.
Nobuhira told a news conference that she could not leave the organisation or stay away from positions where she would come into contact with Ikeda because of her strong faith in the Buddhism preached by the group.
"I could not leave the position I held also because in doing so, I would have had to speak out about the rape," Nobuhira said. "I could not make myself admit this to my husband."
She said she went public with the case now because it was only in February 1996 that she told her husband about the three alleged incidents.
"I could no longer bear to keep silent. I had to tell the public what a man Ikeda is," she said.
Soka Gakkai said the Nobuhira couple were acting out of resentment because in four separate and earlier civil damages cases, the couple was ordered by courts to pay close to 11 million yen ($101,000) in owed funds to various members of Soka Gakkai.
The couple, who quit Soka Gakkai in May 1992, said that those cases were separate from the current one.
Soka Gakkai also accused the Nobuhiras of bringing a civil lawsuit, rather than filing a criminal complaint, saying a criminal investigation would have revealed that there was no truth behind the complaints.
Nobuhira's lawyer said her attorneys have not decided whether or not to file a criminal complaint, saying they went ahead with the civil case first because that way, the team of attorneys and the plaintiffs could stay together as a team. ($1=108 yen)
(c) Reuters Limited 1996
Sources: REUTERS NEWS SERVICE, REUTERS NEWS SERVICE - FAR EAST, REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
REUTERS Business Briefing , 9-8-2002
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