CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014

Seichō no Ie President Taniguchi Masanobu: Presenting andRepresenting the Religious Charismatic Leader over the Social
Networks1「生長の家」総裁・谷口雅宣氏—SNS 上でカリスマ性のある宗教的な指導者を(再)紹介する

Danilo Giambra, University of Otago
danilo.giambra@otago.ac.nz

Seichō no Ie: a Short Introduction
Seichō no Ie 成長の家, literally the House of Growth, is a Japanese New
Religion2 established in 1930 by the charismatic founder Taniguchi Masaharu(1893–1985). At first, Seichō no Ie was established around the publishing of thehomonymous magazine by its founder, after this latter received a series ofrevelations from god (Staemmler 2013).3 The revelations, also called divine
inspirations, allegedly include the three theological pillars of the group, namelythat humans are the children of god, that the perceived reality is only a reflectionof the ultimate and true reality, and that all religions emanate from one universal
god.
1 NOTE: This is a draft version of the paper, which I have presented at the CIR Seminar 2014

organized by the Center for Information on Religion in Tokyo on June 14-15 2014. The paper was
originally presented in Japanese. Reproduction and quoting are forbidden, if not authorized by
the author. For referencing, please contact the author. All rights reserved.
2 Japanese New Religions is used in this paper to describe religious organizations established inJapan during the second half of the nineteenth century onwards around the figure of acharismatic religious leader. For a more detailed description of Japanese New Religions, see
Trevor Astley (2006).
3 According to Seichō no Ie doctrine, there is only one universal god, from whom all religions

are derived. As the children of god, all humans are divine in nature (Masaharu Taniguchi1961).

1

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
Seichō no Ie presented from the beginning a series of complex doctrinal
elements, with a strong link to the New Thought current developed in the US. In
fact, founder Taniguchi was formerly a graduate of the English department ofTokyo University. He collaborated with Hernest Holmes (founder of Religious
Science) and his brother, Fenwicke, of whom he translated the work The Law of
Mind in Action (1919). Seichō no Ie has also been influenced largely by
Christianity, Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism, for instance on its theologicalaccount for one universal god and its emphasis on filial piety, as well as inborrowing a variety of Buddhist metaphors and sutras. This has lead researchers
to define Seichō no Ie a syncretic movement (Kienle and Staemmler 2003;
Staemmler 2011).
The House of Growth movement falls into what scholars of Japanese
Religions call the ‘second wave’ of Japanese New Religions (Astley 2006;
Staemmler 2014), which groups together religious organizations founded
between the 1920-30s, while Japan was developing a greater political awarenessand ultra-nationalistic ideas. Between the wars, religious organizations ought toadapt to a highly nationalistic Japan and were subject to the demanding and fastchanging role of the state over religious matters.
The main religious text of the group is Taniguchi Masaharu’s Seimei noJissō 生命の実相 (Truth of Life), in 40 volumes. The publication is regarded as theprincipal sacred text by the members of Seichō no Ie, 4 and both group andindividual readings of this book are considered part of the religious practice. In
addition to Seimei no Jissō, members of Seichō no Ie consider other publicationsof the founder and its successors as sacred texts.5 Because of the importance

4 Sacred text here refers to how the text is received, interpreted, and valued by its readers. In thecase of Seichō no Ie, a variety of sacred texts used by other established religions (i.e. Christianity)
are also considered sacred. Additionally, the writings of the religious leaders of SNI can beconsidered sacred, as for instance in the case of Truth of Life, and are used during religious
practice and ceremonies.
5 Other

publications by Seichō no Ie include, but are not limited to, the four holy sutras(Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines, Song of the Angel, Holy Sutra for Spiritual Healing, andPrayerful Song to Praise and Bliss the Holy Missioners), The Taniguchi Commentary to the Gospel
According to St. John, Messages of Wisdom and Love, Shinsokan is Wonderful, and many more. A

2

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
given by the group to the publishing, Seichō no Ie has sometimes been referred
to as the ‘Publisher Religion’, in Japanese shuppan shūkyō 出版宗教, however theterm was often used with a negative nuance by people and groups critical against
Seichō no Ie (Baffelli 2008, 3).
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework employed in this paper draws upon relatively
recent studies and the models derived from them. From a broader perspective, I
frame this work within the regional field of research on Japanese Religions andthe Internet (Baffelli 2008; Baffelli 2010; Baffelli 2011; Baffelli, Reader, andStaemmler 2011; Enomoto 2004; Enomoto 2006; Enomoto 2012; Fukamizu
2000; Fukamizu 2007; Fukamizu 2013; Giambra Forthcoming; Giambra and
Baffelli Forthcoming; Inoue 1991; Inoue 2012; Kawabata and Tamura 2007;
Kurosaki 2011; Shultz 2011; Takanori 1999; Tamura 1997; Tamura 1997;
Tamura and Tamura 2008), and thus within the Religion and the Internet
international research cluster (Armfield and Holbert 2003; Beckerlegge 2001;
Campbell 2005a; Campbell 2005b; Campbell 2010b; Campbell 2010a; Campbell
2012; Cheong et al. 2009; Cheong 2012a; Cheong 2012b; Cheong 2012c; Helland
2000; Helland 2007; Helland 2009).
In particular for this paper, I refer to the ‘self-presentational strategies’ ofSeichō no Ie over the Internet medium, previously partly analyzed by Petra
Kienle and Birgit Staemmler (Kienle and Staemmler 2003). In their comparative
work, Kienle and Staemmler pinpoint that the digital spaces created by Seichō no
Ie online cannot be considered to have changed dramatically nor effectively theway this religion communicates with its external users or internally. In fact,
despite digital networks are created, and beyond the efforts of the group to
reinforce the internal collaboration among sub-organizations and group throughpromoting its internal online religious network, the contents found online are
not necessarily new, and much of the proselytism is left to the more traditional
word-of-mouth system. Furthermore, the Internet allows for critical voices tomore exhaustive list can be found visiting Seichō no Ie official website at www.seicho-noie.org.

3

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
rise, and requires a constant effort of the group to reaffirm their viewpoint andto defend their public image.
Then, I build on to the ‘presentation/representation model’ theorized byDavid Marshall (Marshall 2010), and the ‘celebrity model’ proposed by Benjamin
Dorman (Dorman 2012), in which the celebrity model provides a valid
framework within which to analyze the charismatic leader’s communication overthe presentational media. In line with this, I also borrow from the work of Erica
Baffelli, who has contributed widely to an understanding of Japanese New
Religions charismatic leadership over the ‘traditional’ media and online, with a
special emphasis on her analysis of the ‘charismatic blogging’ (Baffelli 2007;
Baffelli 2011).
By combining these theories and models together it is possible to makesense of the complex communicative strategies used by Seichō no Ie
International, as the group exploits new presentational media spaces for‘branding’ its religion and for affirming the role of its leader as religious icon andcharismatic Social Media actor.
The Centrality of the Religious Leaders
In line with other Japanese New Religions of that time (i.e. Reiyūkai, Sōka
Gakkai, Sekai Kyūseikyō, Risshō Kōseikai), Seichō no Ie puts a strong emphasis
on its founding charismatic leader, Taniguchi Masaharu. Even more today thatthe founder is no longer alive, the works of Taniguchi are regarded as sacred andare considered to be the foundation of the Seichō no Ie religion.
The religious organization has maintained overall a vertical hierarchicalstructure: the religious leader, or today the president of Seichō no Ie
International, occupies a central position, along with the three main suborganizations, to which the members subscribe according to their age, sex, andsocial status.6

6 The three main sub-organizations of Seichō no Ie are the White Dove Association, the Young

Adults and Youth Association, and the Sōaikai (Community of Mutual Love). These
associations attract respectively a membership of woman, young adults and young people,
and family heads (male only).

4

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
The religious leader of the group is seen as a guide and an inspiration toachieve this-life goals, as well as to grasp a holistic view of the purpose andmeaning of human beings’ existence in this world. The growth, central in the ideaof the movement, is a path that the members have to undertake here and now, as
they become aware of their inherited divinity and of their power to change
reality and achieve happiness.
The members of Seichō no Ie have de facto enshrined the founder, andreserve a similar respectful treatment to his successors. Filial piety is in fact oneof the main doctrinal pillars of the group, which in turn derives it from its
Confucian roots.
Branding Faith: Seichō no Ie International (SNI)
Similarly to other Japanese New Religions (i.e. Kōfuku no Kagaku and Sōka
Gakkai), Seichō no Ie presents an organizational structure similar to a businesscompany (in Japan, kaisha).7 The organization is a multinational company with
branches in Japan and overseas with a defined religious mission (evangelizing
the existence of one and true universal god, making people realize their divinity
as the children of god, and provide adherents with tools for achieving happinessand be physically relieved from illnesses, as the shinsōkan meditation), aiming tosucceed in its ‘business’ of converting people, through the selling of religious
products and goods, such as the many publications sold by the group through its
own religious publishing house, namely Nihon Kyōbunsha.
Applying the marketing model, the religious institution becomes the
supplier, marketing its product (religion) to religious seekers and adherents ofthe group; these, in turn, represent the end users category (Einstein 2007). In
order to do so, the religious organization must create a religious brand for itself
through establishing a series of icons and symbols which will grant the

7 The Japanese kaisha is uniquely culturally constructed in its hierarchical structure, in which itdoes not root in the Western commercial business models, but rather on the Edo period feudal
han model, characterized by the relationship between the feud lord, principal retainer, and theordinary samurai, which in marketing terms becomes the relationship between the company
president, the director, and the employees (Nakamaki 2013, 156).

5

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
organization to be publicly recognizable and associated with a set of religious
and social values. 8
According to the Annual Book of Religions in Japan (Shukyo Nenkan:
Heisei 23, p.87), Seichō no Ie counts more than 650.000 members in Japan. On theofficial website of the organization, the group claims for another 1 million
members spread overseas:
The Seichō-No-Ie Humanity Enlightenment Movement,
started by the founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi to enlighten thelife of all humankind, passed through by the former President,
Rev. Seichō Taniguchi, and succeeded by the President Rev.
Masanobu Taniguchi. The movement, which aims at realizing
world peace through faith in the Absolute God, is expanding
actively through missionary branches in the world including
Japan, North America, Central and South America, Asia andOceania, and Europe (SNI Website in English, accessed 27 Nov
2013).
The leader of the religious movement is granted the title of president ofSeichō no Ie International, and his character presents many traits found both inbusiness leaders and celebrities. The president, in Japanese sōsai 総裁, has legal
responsibilities for the group, and becomes the face of the movement. His actions
as a person are judged at the light of his management role within the cultural andreligious association Seichō no Ie. Taniguchi Masanobu, the third and current
president of the group, is a prolific author and contributes to reinforce thebranding of the Seichō no Ie religion. In turn, the branding of president Taniguchi
is supported through strong marketing policies that the group elaborates andadopts according to the circumstances and in line with the objectives and final
goals of the organization. As the company leader, Taniguchi is the main
representative for the religious organization: he participates events nationally
8 Elinstein defined faith branding as being about making meaning—taking the individual aspectsof a product and turning them into more than the sum of their parts. It is about giving consumers
something to think and feel about a product or service beyond its physical attributes. It’s about fulfi
lling a need; providing what marketers call the benefit (Einstein 2007, 70).

6

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
and internationally, and he contributes greatly in expanding the prestige of his
religious ‘brand’.
The President of SNI as a Celebrity
If Max Weber theory can still be widely used in Religious Studies indefining the characteristics of a charismatic religious leader (Weber 1968), thecomplexity of religious communication in the contemporary Information Age isrequiring for a further redefinition, or at least implementation, of this model.
The charisma, or the gift of the religious leader to attract, fascinate, andinfluence people, is usually found in first generation religious leaders, but it is
not uncommon to find cases where charisma is then transferred to the heirs inline, before or after the founder dies. In the case of Seichō no Ie, the common
charismatic aspect that brings together the three leaders of the group over thetime is their ability to write, publish, and sell prolifically. Through the written
text, the leaders of Seichō no Ie have been able to attract new adherents and toretain old ones. However, the charisma of SNI leaders is not limited to the‘written text’,9 as SNI leaders can be rather described as effective communicators
tout court, able to operate through different communicative channels.
Taniguchi Masanobu, whose writings are regarded as religious texts, has
in fact built up public profiles and pages over multiple Social Networks in threedifferent languages, namely Japanese, English, and Portuguese. In particular, thecommunication strategy of the group focuses on Twitter and Facebook as thetwo main Social Networks, where the life of the President is shared andcommented on a daily basis.
Building on the celebrity model, the President of Seichō no Ie presents thefollowing characteristic traits. His role is central within the offline religious

9 Publishing books and magazines is certainly representative of how Seichō no Ie leaders havemaintained their ability to influence people and spread their ideas. However, written materials
are not the only vehicles for expressing these ideas, and more recently online publications andInternet blogging and messaging have also been used. As it is not possible to confine online
publishing to the domain of plain written text, we must underline the shift from ‘traditional’
publishing to embedding also a more fluid digital publishing, where the written text is subject tothe specificity of the medium through which the information is circulated.

7

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
network, for which he also becomes the central node of SNI on the Social
Networks. He owns charisma and prestige, which he shows publicly during his
performances (i.e. religious meetings, lectures, etc.) He is admired by a multitudeof people who follow his life and posts. In other words, he has FANs. He shares
intimate moments of his life publicly. Thus, he has little privacy, just like most
famous actors and singers. Taniguchi posts ‘in a casual way’ important pieces ofdoctrine, religious advice, unedited religious materials, as the celebrities would
share their ideas about their next music album, or movie. He has an influential
position of power and religious authority, which is mirrored online, as it is forcelebrities. What he says, or in this case writes, is regarded as sacred.10 His
image/person is enshrined and revered by his followers. Many adherents use theSocial Networks to connect with him, beyond the regulated offline performance
space (i.e. religious meetings as show).
Despite these are only some of the characteristics in common between the
discourses of religion and celebrity, it is clear that the model of celebrity can beapplied to a particular typology of religious leader, such as President Taniguchi.
The presence of a charismatic religious leader in the group, whether first
generation or not, remains however a conditio sine qua non for applying thismodel.
Charismatic Blogger and Social Media Actor
Erica Baffelli (2011) introduced in her edited volume on Japanese
Religion and the Internet the idea of a charismatic blogger, in reference to thefigure of Fumihiro Joyu, former second in command of the religious organization
Aum Shinrikyō, responsible for releasing sarin gas in the Tokyo subway system
in 1995 (Aum Affair). Fumihiro is now the leader of the newly founded split
religious movement named Hikari no Wa. As analyzed by Baffelli, Fumihiro
shares pictures of him practicing religion, giving public talks, and attending
meetings. This, in turn, creates an image of the leader as a celebrity, who become
more accessible and who has a higher credibility.

10 Discourses of sacrality are borrowed in Celebrity Studies from Relgion.

8

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
In a previous article on Aum as a turning point for understanding media
and religion in Japan, Baffelli quotes from Redmond :Stars and celebrities confess—they always have invested
in the revelatory mode of self-enunciation—but in the selfreflexive, ubiquitous, highly stimulated environment of 24/7
media culture today, they centrally rely on the confessional toauthenticate, validate, humanize, resurrect, extend and enrichtheir star and celebrity identities. Stars and celebrities confess,
and in so doing confirm their status as truthful, emotive,
experiential beings who—as devotional fans—we can invest in.
Although there are important differences in the use of presentational
media between the two religious leaders Fumihiro and Taniguchi, nonetheless it
remains possible to apply this model also to the latter. Taniguchi Masanobu has
is own official webpage, www.masanobutaniguchi.com, which is essentially used
to gather all the links that point to personal presentational spaces is has built
online. In particular, one of the three links on his website points to his own blog,
entitled Karamatsu Moyō 唐松模様 (lit. Arabesque).
The blog is hosted within the personal website, and is updated quite
regularly once or twice a week. The contents of the blog are very various, andinclude posts on Taniguchi’s travelling, news, religion, philosophy, environment,
and more. The posts contains metadata (tags), therefore it is possible to retrieve
entries on the blog through the keyword buttons situated on the left side of thepage.
Taniguchi writes on his blog in a very organized and yet casual manner.
The language employed is never too difficult to understand, and the arguments
are supported with examples. As typical of his writing, some rhetoric is present
in the text, however mostly the contents are accessible to virtually any reader. Asa last remark, the blog is used as if it was diary, and in some instances Taniguchi
finishes his posts with greetings typical of diary entries (i.e. sore dewa, mata それ
では、また). This style confers to his writing a dimension of intimacy, which inturn is reflected on the way Taniguchi establishes a personal bond with hisreadership through the blog.
9CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
Presenting the Religious Leader’s Self over the Social Media
Baffelli (2011, 132) also argued that authority is relocated in the Social
Networks, allowing the religious leader to share carefully selected images, posts,
and confessions. Nothing, apparently, is left to the case. Everything counts inbuilding a positive and credible image on which the members of the group
recognize their leader, and on which the non-members recognize the average
person, a human being who nonetheless owns religious authority and can behumble at the same time.
Taniguchi Masabobu does all of that on Facebook. He posts pictures ofhimself and his wife while they have dinner, or they are attending an event. He
posts the details of the weather when they visit religious communities
throughout Japan. He confesses his feelings publically and he receives comments
and support from users who access his pages. He has built a persona in which hishumanity is valued, as if it was a proof that after all he is just a man.
The leader creates on the Social Networks new spaces where his image ispresented and represented through the process of mediatization itself. He
presents himself both as a person and a charismatic leader, the man and theprophet, the subject and the object of religious worship. This new religiously
constructed Social Space, where his image is reinterpreted by the users of theSocial Media, is perceived as a ‘close space’ by the users, a space they can accesseasily at any time, as many times as they want to. The users can interact with thereligious leader, they can reach out to him and to other adherents andsympathizers. This allows for what Baffelli calls virtual proximity (Baffelli, 2011).
In a highly internationalized religious organization such as Seichō no Ie,
virtual proximity can play a very important role, as it allows members all over
the world to feel like if they were always in contact with their religious leader.
This, in turn, can be a powerful tool for attracting and retaining members, as well
as a way to unify the scattered religious communities through a reinforcing afeeling of centrality and religious leadership, which is always accessible to theusers.

10

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
The Twitter Profiles of Taniguchi Masanobu
Taniguchi Masanobu has established two separate profiles on Twitter.
The first, is an English managed Twitter profile registered to the President ofSeichō no Ie, with the nickname SeichōNoIe President (Masanobu Taniguchi2014). A sober black background is used as a frame for the picture of Rev.
Taniguchi, smiling at the centre of this digital presentational space. Right below
the picture, the religious and bureaucratic role of Rev. Taniguchi as president of
SNI is stated clearly in a line with his nickname, followed by the Twitter handle
name @seichōnoie.11 The handle name reveals the merging between Rev.
Taniguchi Masanobu (never mentioned at this stage with his name on thisTwitter profile), as religious leader and president of the SNI organization, andthe religious organization Twitter profile at the group level. A small sentence
further emphasizes the role of Rev. Taniguchi within SNI. Just below, theadjective global alone emphasizes the international scope of this profile. Finally,
the only sponsored link refers to the Facebook page of Rev. Taniguchi, and more
specifically to his English managed Facebook profile as the President of SNI(“Seichō-No-Ie President” 2013).
Rev. Taniguchi second Twitter profile is instead targeting a Japanese
speaking audience mostly, as the contents are published in Japanese and are
therefore not easily accessible to users speaking other languages. In the Japaneseversion, the actual personal name of Rev. Taniguchi is not just clearly presented
right on top of the presentational space, but it is also reused below the picture,
where we would have otherwise found his nickname. The handle name, namely@SEICHŌ_NO_IE, mirrors the handle name used in the global profile, however
this time the overlapping of identity is between Rev. Taniguchi, as a person, andthe religious organization SNI. In other words, if in the global profile in English
the identity of Rev. Taniguchi is presented online emphasizing the religious and

11 The nickname SeichōNoIe President is different from the Twitter handle @seichōnoie. In fact,

the nickname describes who is the author, whereas the handle functions partly as a toponym or
identifier of the Social Space portion devoted to this user within the Twitter flow. The handle
here also functions as a marker to determine the argument of social discussion, in this case thereligion Seichō no Ie.

11

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
bureaucratic function of the president of SNI, in Japanese the communication
strategy to present Rev. Taniguchi on Twitter emphasizes the human nature of
the president, instead.
There are a number of factors that we must take into account when
applying this analysis. First, when registering to Twitter, there are certain‘platform limitations’ for which the choice of nicknames and handle names are
reduced as a result.12 However, even taking the platform limitations into account,
my analysis shows a pattern of choices by the group in presenting itself to theTwitter public, which stands despite of these latter factors. For instance, thechoice of presenting Rev. Taniguchi once as the President of the religiousorganization, and once as the actual person has hardly anything to do with theselimitations.
To support this argument further, it must be noticed that the handle
names of the two profiles are in fact almost identical, if it wasn’t for thecapitalization and the hyphen.13 This proves the Internet services staff members
were aware of alternative ways, and the strategy adopted was indeed notcasual.14
Thus, we can compare SNI Twitter presentational strategy as follows:

12 In particular, creating two profiles for the same person/organization can be tricky, for instancewhen a user attempts to register the same email address with multiple profiles.
13 @seichōnoie versus @SEICHŌ_NO_IE.
14 On top of such evidence, during my meeting with representatives of Seichō no Ie engaged withthe creating of Internet contents it was clear that the group is following a studied presentational
strategy on the Social Media. The publishing, whether online or in more traditional forms, is aprominent characteristic of this religious organization, and the importance given to words is sohigh, that it becomes unrealistic to think the President profiles don’t follow this same trend.

12CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014

SeichoNoIe President English Managed

Taniguchi Masanobu Japanese Managed

PictureActual Personal Name: (Roman alphabet) Taniguchi
Masanobu

Nickname: SeichoNoIe President

PictureHandle Name: @seichonoie

Nickname: (Roman alphabet) same as actual
personal name

Description: Synthesis of the Religious andBureaucratic Role of Rev. Taniguchi within SNI

Handle Name: @SEICHO_NO_IE

Target Audience: Global

Description: (in Japanese) focuses on the personal
tweeting of Rev. Taniguchi Masanobu, targets
automatically a Japanese speaking audience

Link: Facebook Page of President of Seicho no Ie

Link: Personal website taniguchimasanobu.com(links in turn to another three different webpages inJapanese and English)

Facebook: A Social Space Suitable for an International(ized) Japanese New
Religion
Facebook did not attract many people in Japan when it first started its
service in Japanese (Tabuchi 2011; Gilhooly 2012). In fact, other Social Spaces
were and are more prominent in the Social Media panorama of the country.15
However, Facebook has recently started to gain the sympathy of some Japanese,
especially after the app was introduced by default in some mobile phones suchas the iPhone and the Android operated smartphones. It has to be said, though,that these devices are less spread in Japan, as many people heavily rely on
different Japanese models, which follow their own fashion, and include their own
very Japanese services. The spread of Facebook, then, is in part due to theimportation of new products from the US into Japan.
Similarly,inmyresearchonJapanese

New

Religions

onlinecommunication, it appears that there is indeed a connection between the level ofinternationalization of a Japanese New Religion, and its use of the Social Media.
In particular, Facebook is mostly used by very internationalized organizations,

15 In particular, Mixi Japan remains the most popular Social Network in the country, in terms ofregistered users, as of 2014.

13

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
which have a strong presence in countries where Facebook is the number one
medium of socialization online. Hence, Seichō no Ie, which has a strong presencein Brazil and in the US, beneficiates greatly from establishing a presence on
Facebook, as this allows for virtual proximity to actually happen. However,
Facebook is a social medium with a strong character, and communication on thisplatform has to follow specific rules. In particular, as the name of the service
suggests, Facebook was born as a network based around real people, from which
the emphasis put on the ‘face’. The face of Taniguchi Masanobu seems to be
perfect for representing the group, as we have previously examined. The group,
then, is associated with a human face, which is central and authoritative. In thisway, private and public merge together, and Facebook becomes a tool forconnecting with the religious community, beyond time and space constraints.
The page of the President Taniguchi maintains the comment feature
active, allowing other users to participate to the online conversation. The page ispublic, so everyone can access the information, even through a simple Google
search. Facebook also allows its users to select the privacy setting of every single
post, extending the information publicly, to friend, or even to friends of friends.
This has not been the policy from the beginning, and the change toward a morecustomizable publishing has contributed to change the favor of the Japanesepeople, who were already accustomed to this level of privacy with Mixi Japan(one of the most important SNS in Japan). Last but not least, Taniguchi presents
most of his posts in three languages. This allows members from all over theworld to read through his contents, but also to engage in conversation. When atranslation is not provided, the integration of a translation tool in FB keeps thereading and conversing going.

14

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
SNI President Profiles
Similarly to the presentational strategies adopted by the organization on
Twitter, the President of SNI owns two personal profiles, one in Japanese, andone global.16
First, it is worthwhile noticing that the president of SNI, and thus thereligious organization, had established a less person-oriented communication
scheme before creating such profiles. In fact, as it is inferable from the analysis of
the contents of the global page of President Taniguchi Masanobu, a Facebook
thread was already online in 2008. According to the data available, the thread
entitled Meditation Shinsokan ran for period of time, before being dismissed.
However, a few screenshots of discussion on this thread have been uploaded as afirst thing on the new global profile of President Taniguchi as early as January 6,
2011, and are publicly available. The President established in fact his global
profile in December 30, 2010 and continues to run it to this date. The main
language used for communication is English, however it is often possible to find atranslation in Portuguese just below the English text.
The global Facebook page of President Taniguchi is well looked after andis updated regularly, even on the move.17 The contents are very various, andoften include attached pictures. In particular, it is possible to categorize thefunctions of this type of communication as follows:
Information Sharing and Advertising
The profile is used to spread information about upcoming events andlectures, as well as to advertise new publications available for sale. This activities
are targeting a wide audience, including existing members of SNI, sympathizers,
and non-members.
News dispatch

16 The adjective global is used by SNI for describing their Twitter account in English. I hereafter

continue to use this term for the international Facebook profile of the president as the scopes ofcommunication are analogue.
17 In some instances, it is possible to determine the post has been uploaded through a mobile

device.

15

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
The Facebook page is used to dispatch information about events, whichhave already happened. In particular, the President often posts thanking
messages to the people who attended his lectures and other religious events
organized by the group. Through a subjective report on past events, there is alsoa chance for leaving an imprint on the message, report statistics about
attendance, build up on the image of SNI.
Religious Journal
Before anything, Taniguchi Masanobu is indeed the leader of a religiousorganization. Thus, the page contains a considerable amount of religiously
constructed ideas and covers a variety of topics such as life and death, natureand the environment, the cult of ancestors, and more. Taniguchi uses his
personal space on Facebook not just to discuss religious materials alreadypublished in print, but also to share ongoing thoughts and ideas he is currently
working on. Through comments and re-sharing this practice partly allows forinteractive religious communication and moderately for an osmotic reshaping ofa variety of in progress ideas. Because President Taniguchi is a prolific publisher
and his printed works are considered as sacred texts, the relationship between
author and readership has been reshaped through the possibility of synchronousor quasi-synchronous interaction over the SNS.
Travel Journal
Many posts can be described as travel posts. The President writes about
his day, his dinners with his wife Junko, the places they visited. Through thistravel narrative, the person of Taniguchi comes out. His essence of human being
is revealed, as enjoys the company of family and people, as he awaits for his
deleted flights, as he experience life. The mixing of social roles and private
identities in Facebook is particularly evident, however it is difficult to draw a line
between what contents are shared according to a specific presentational
strategies, and which ones are shared just out of an emotional spur.
Photographic Journal
A prominent feature of Facebook remains the ability of attaching images
to the posts, which are displayed together with the text. The pictures are often

16

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
portraying natural scenes, in line with the environment-friendly policies
advertised by the group, and especially by the President. Religious images of
Buddha, temples, and shrines he visited during his trips are also very frequent.
The President also shares pictures of food and other activities done in several
places.
The Japanese profile of President Taniguchi Masanobu is largely
mirroring the contents of the global profile. In fact, the posts of the global profile
are embedded and shared again by adding a description in Japanese, or in someinstances the original Japanese posts are translated and shared on the global
page.

Figure 1 Words Frequency Cloud Map of President Taniguchi's Japanese Facebook Profile

If we analyze the most frequent words used in the Japanese Facebook
profile by Taniguchi, a great emphasis is put on the lectures given by thepresident himself, as well as on new entries posted on his personal blog andwebsite. It is evident that the President and the group are putting a great effort
in creating and following media strategies to present the organization to aninternational audience. By posting in English and Portuguese first, Seichō no Ie isstating its will to be considered a global religious movement, able to reach out toan audience greater than the national one. Moreover, as I have outlined before,
the strong presence of members outside Japan is also a good reason to invest in
multicultural religious communication. Facebook, a social network platform that
had failed in the beginning to attract members in Japan, has revealed to be a very
17

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
suitable portion of the Social Space where the President can be in contact withhis national and international followers.
Taniguchi on Facebook: celebrity and charisma in self-centered networks
David P. Marshall has addressed within the framework of Celebrity
Studies the transformation of the self through media spaces of presentation andrepresentation. Building on the self performances paradigm of Erving Goffman(Goffman 1973), Marshall has analysed how what he calls Presentational Media
(i.e. Facebook and Twitter) are creating new forms of the self which are partly
personal, interpersonal, and mediated at the same time (Marshall 2010).
The Facebook profiles of President Taniguchi Masanobu can beinterpreted at the light of this theory, in which the person of Taniguchi ispresented through this medium in several ways, as I had a chance to analyse
above. In particular, the humanity of Taniguchi Masanobu is revealed through his
travel and personal narrative, producing an image of what we could define theregular self. As Taniguchi and his wife Junko, in turn the president of the White
Dove Association, travel, eat, visit places around Japan and overseas, theireveryday ‘mask’ is showed through the Social Media. Through the repetitive actof sharing images and texts about his regular self, users accessing Taniguchi’spresentational space on Facebook, and through the mirroring of information on
Twitter, become the spectators of the everyday life narratives of the otherwise
religious charismatic leader. This latter performance of the self is in fact
constructed through the sharing of religious ideas and texts, images of sacredspaces (i.e. SNI churches, shrines and temples), reports on lectures about Seichōno Ie. All these presentational information are not just transposed online
through the Social Media, but can become mediated through online interaction,
re-sharing, and re-interpreting by users able to access them. Furthermore, in thecase of Taniguchi’s writing, it is also interesting to note that many times his
public writings, including bits of what he shares through the Social Media, canbecome actual sacred texts, as they go through a process of refinement and are
re-encoded to suit the standards of the press medium.
From what I have presented, the case of Taniguchi Masanobu certainly
fits this new wave of studies, which combine the study of Religion with Celebrity
18

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
Studies, Media Studies, and Internet Studies. In particular, it seems relevant andbeneficial to extend this analysis to the Social Media platforms, as they represent
an appropriate place where charismatic leaders such as Taniguchi can present
and represent themselves to their members and the wider public. As Social
Media are by definition putting the individual (node) at the center of the network,
they provide a structure that mirrors the religious and social function of
President Taniguchi. Hence, the convergence of discourses from religion,
business, and media studies appear to be a positive approach that can reveal
more of the more contemporary ways of making religion at a global, and yet
localized level.
Discussion Points
I have originally presented this paper in Japanese at the CIR Seminar2014 in Tokyo, organized by the Center for Information on Religion. The paper
has succeeded in generating a lively academic discussion on several topics
derived from the examples and theories reported during the presentation. Thus,
I would like to add a few lines to report some of these comments, as they haverevealed very valuable for future research in this field.
First of all, as I was able to pinpoint in this paper, religious
communication occurring online by the religious organization Seichō no Ie is not
limited to the use of the Japanese language, but it rather extends to a variety oflanguages and their related cultural systems. In particular, the activity of thegroup in English and Portuguese has revealed to be very important, and acomparative study that will look in depth into the multilingual communication
strategies over the Social Media by this type of religious organization willcertainly be a valid research approach to pursue.
Furthermore, in this paper I have exposed some of the communication
strategies the president of SNI, Taniguchi Masanobu, is adopting in terms ofcommunicating, presenting, and re-presenting his image on the Social Media.
However, a broader framework of research that would include other examples
derived from other religious movements in Japan and abroad would certainly
add weight to this analysis. I intend to implement this in the imminent future,
however as the model I have presented can be applied to a variety of religious
19CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
organizations, it would be beneficial to see more case studies arising from otherresearchers in the field, so that a comparative framework can be developed.
Continuing, from a Media Studies perspective I was addressed a numberof questions, including who is the targeted audience of SNI communication on
the Social Media. For the sake of being concise, I was not able to cover in depth
all aspects in this paper, however I would like to refer my readers to my doctoral
dissertation, which will be available in the following months through the websiteof the University of Otago.
For instance, another point that has been touched during discussion has
been weather and to what extent the communication of SNI over the Social
Media can be indeed described as being ‘interactive’. In this regard, it must be
said that the level of interactivity is different among the Japanese and the global
spaces created online by the group, where the Japanese version is de facto lessinteractive than, say, the Portuguese one. However, the president of SNI and thestaff have being changing the communication strategies of the group a number oftimes already, aiming to increase the effectiveness of communicating religion
online. Despite of these changes, it remains true that the most effective way forthis religious organization to reach out to its members and sympathizers israther to continue relying on its more traditional activities of mouth-to-mouthand face-to-face communication. In fact, the value of communicating religion
over the Internet for this group has not to be interpreted as a way to substitutetraditional ways of communicating religion, but rather as a further tool for
facilitating religious communication across physical distances and time.
As a result of my research, it appears that since Taniguchi Masanobu has
become the president of SNI, a new Information Era was born within the group.
Despite an Internet presence was first established under Taniguchi Seichō, it is
only with Taniguchi Masanobu that the group has being implementing newcommunication strategies that include the use of New Media, and the president
himself is making the most of these new spaces, as he is using them to create live
shared narratives of the self, which in turn are allowing him to recreate a new
type of charisma for himself, as through the mediation of his image and the newcommunication strategies developed by the president himself and the staff, it is20

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
not just possible to create a link between people, but also a link between thepeople and the divine.

21

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014

References
Armfield, Greg G., and Robert L. Holbert. 2003. “The Relationship Between
Religiosity and Internet Use.” Journal of Media and Religion 3 (2).
http://www.mendeley.com/research/relationship-between-religiosityinternet/.
Astley, Trevor. 2006. “New Religions.” In Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions, byPaul Swanson, 91–114. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Baffelli, Erica. 2007. “Mass Media and Religion in Japan: Mediating the Leader’s
Image.” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 4 (1): 83–99.
———. 2008. “Media and Religion in Japan: The Aum Affair as a Turning Point”.
Working paper presented to the EASA Media Anthropology Network.
http://www.philbu.net/media-anthropology/baffelli_mediareligion.pdf.
———. 2010. “Japanese New Religions and the Internet: A Case Study.”
Australian Religion Studies Review 23 (3): 255–76.
———. 2011. “Charismatic Blogger? Authority and New Religions in the Web 2.0.”
In Japanese Religions on the Internet: Innovation, Representation, andAuthority, edited by Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader, and Birgit Staemmler, 118–
35. New York: Routledge.
Baffelli, Erica, Ian Reader, and Birgit Staemmler. 2011. Japanese Religions on theInternet: Innovation, Representation, and Authority. New York: Routledge.
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415886437/.
Beckerlegge, Gwilym. 2001. “Computer-Mediated Religion: Religion on theInternet at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century.” In From Sacred Text tothe Internet. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Campbell, Heidi. 2005a. Exploring Religious Community Online : We Are One in the
Network. New York [u.a.]: Lang.
———. 2005b. “Making Space for Religion in Internet Studies.” The Information
Society 21 (4): 309–15.
———. 2010a. “Religious Authority and the Blogosphere.” Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication 15 (2): 251–76.
———. 2010b. When Religion Meets New Media. T & F Books UK.
———. 2012. Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New MediaWorlds. Routledge.
Cheong, Pauline Hope. 2012a. Digital Religion, Social Media, and Culture:
Perspectives, Practices, and Futures. Digital Formations v. 78. New York: P.
Lang.
———. 2012b. “Twitter of Faith: Understanding Social Media Networking andMicroblogging Rituals as Religious Practices.” In Digital Religion, Social
Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures. New York: Peter Lang.
———. 2012c. “Religious Leaders, Mediated Authority and Social Change.”
Journal of Applied Communication Research 39 (4).
Cheong, Pauline Hope, Jessie P. H. Poon, Shirlena Huang, and Irene Casas. 2009.
“The Internet Highway and Religious Communities: Mapping andContesting Spaces in Religion-Online.” The Information Society 25 (5):291–302.
Dorman, Benjamin. 2012. Celebrity Gods New Religions, Media, and Authority in
Occupied Japan. Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture. Honolulu:
22

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
UniversityofHawaiʻi
Press.
http://ZZ5MW5ZC7Z.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=ZZ5MW5ZC
7Z&S=JCs&C=TC0000631105&T=marc.
Einstein, Mara. 2007. Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age.
Routledge.
Enomoto, Kaoru. 2004. “Shukyo Saito Ni Okeru CMC Kukan No Shoso Ni Tsuite:
Kyodan Koshiki Saito to Shinreisei Bunkateki Kokjin Saito No Hikaku Yori.”
Tokyo Daigaku Shukyogaku Nenjo 21 (March): 67 – 83.
Http://repository.dl.itc.utokyo.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2261/26010/1/rel02106.pdf.
———. 2006. “Shinshukyo No Media Jissen to Sono Shukyokan.” Tokyo Daigaku
Shukyogaku Nenjo 23 (March): 37 – 52.
———. 2012. “Shukyosha to Sosharu Media. Higashi Nihon Daishinzai Toki ni
okeru Facebook katsudo wo chushin ni”, March.
Fukamizu, Kenshin. 2000. “The Ability of the Website of Religion : The Case of the
Temples and Churches in Hiroshima.” Religion & Society, no. 6 (June): 47–
60.
———. 2007. “Internet Use among Religious Followers: Religious
Postmodernism in Japanese Buddhism.” Journal of Computer-MediatedCommunication 12 (3).
———. 2013. “The Situation of Japanese Traditional Buddhism in the Web 2.0
Era: Who Attacks and Who Guards the Religion?” In Japanese Religions on
the Internet : Innovation, Representation, and Authority, edited by Erica
Baffelli, Ian Reader, and Birgit Staemmler, 1st ed., 39–61. Hoboken: Taylor
and Francis.
Giambra, Danilo. Forthcoming. “Japanese New Religions and the Social Networks.
Toward a 2.0 Interactive Religious Discourse?” In Asian Religions,Technology, and Science, edited by István Keul. Routledge.
Giambra, Danilo, and Erica Baffelli. Forthcoming. “Japanese Religions on theInternet.” In The Changing World Religion Map, edited by Stanley D. Brunn.
Springer.
Gilhooly, Rob. 2012. “Why Japan Finally Fell in Love with Facebook.” New
Scientist 215 (2875): 20.
Goffman, Erving. 1973. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Woodstock, NY,
Overlook Press.
Helland, Christopher. 2000. “Online-Religion/Religion-Online and Virtual
Communities.” In Religion on the Internet: Research Prospects andPromises, edited by J. K. Hadden and D. E. Cowan. New York: JAI Press.
———. 2007. “Diaspora on the Electronic Frontier: Developing Virtual
Connections with Sacred Homelands.” Journal of Computer-MediatedCommunication. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/helland.html.
———. 2009. “Online Religion as Lived Religion. Methodological Issues in the
Study of Religious Participation on the Internet.” Online-Heidelberg
Journal of Religions on the Internet 1 (1).
Inoue, Nobutaka. 1991. “Recent Trends in the Study of Japanese New Religions.”
In , 4–24. Contemporary Papers on Japanese Religion 2. Tokyo:
Kokugakuin University, Institute for Japanese Culture and Classics.
———. 2012. “Media and New Religious Movements in Japan.” Journal of
Religion in Japan 1 (2): 121–41. doi:10.1163/221183412X645308.
23

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
Kawabata, Akira, and Takanori Tamura. 2007. “Online-Religion in Japan:
Websites and Religious Counseling from a Comparative Cross-Cultural
Perspective.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (3): 999–
1019.
Kienle, Petra, and Birgit Staemmler. 2003. “Self-Representation of Two New
Religions on the Japanese Internet. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seicho No Ie.”
In Establishing the Revolutionary: An Introduction to New Religions inJapan, edited by Nanette Gottlieb and Mark J. McLelland, 222–34.
Kurosaki, Hiroyuki. 2011. “Preserving the Dignity of Shinto Shrines in the Age of
the Internet: A Social Context Analysis.” In Japanese Religions on theInternet: Innovation, Representation, and Authority, edited by Erica Baffelli,
Ian Reader, and Birgit Staemmler, 62–79. New York: Routledge.
Marshall, P. David. 2010. “The Promotion and Presentation of the Self: Celebrity
as Marker of Presentational Media.” Celebrity Studies 1 (1): 35–48.
Nakamaki, Hirochika. 2013. “Memorial Monuments and Memorial Services ofJapanese Companies.” In Ceremony and Ritual in Japan: Religious Practices
in an Industrialized Society, edited by D. P. Martinez and Jan Van Bremen,
146–58. Routledge.
“Seicho-No-Ie President.” 2013. Facebook. Accessed January 16.
http://www.facebook.com/Seichonoie.President.
Shultz, John. 2011. “Pilgrim Leadership Rendered in HTML: Bloggers and the
Shikoku Henro.” In Japanese Religions on the Internet: Innovation,
Representation and Authority, edited by Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader, andBirgit Staemmler, 101–17. New York: Routledge.
Staemmler, Birgit. 2011. “Seichō No Ie.” In Establishing the Revolutionary : An
Introduction to New Religions in Japan, edited by Birgit Staemmler and
Ulrich M Dehn, 141–60. Berlin; London: Lit ; Global [distributor].
———. 2014. “Japanese NRMs.” In The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious
Movements, edited by George D. Chryssides and Benjamin E. Zeller, 53–56.
A&C Black.
———. 2013. “World Religions & Spirituality | Seicho No Ie.” Accessed
November 19. http://www.has.vcu.edu/wrs/profiles/SeichNoIe.htm.
Tabuchi, Hiroko. 2011. “Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan.” TheNewYorkTimes,
January9,sec.
Technology.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/technology/10facebook.html?_r=
1&scp=1&sq=mixi&st=cse.
Takanori, TAMURA. 1999. “Spiritual Network in the Internet Embedded Society :FARION Forum as a Case.” Shukyo to Shakai, no. 5 (June): 87–97.
Tamura, Takanori. 1997. “Information of Religion on the Internet : Possibilities
and Dangers.” Religion & Society, no. 3 (June): 119–36.
Tamura, Takanori, and Daiyu Tamura. 2008. “Unsuccessful Chats for Mutual
Understanding about Religion in the Japanese Internet: Preliminary
Studies for Global Informaiton Ethics.” International Review ofInformation Ethics 9 (08/2008): 5–13.
Taniguchi, Masaharu. 1961. Truth of Life. Tokyo: Seicho-No-Ie Foundation, Divine
Publication Dept.
Taniguchi, Masanobu. 2014. “SeichoNoIe President (@seichonoie)”. Social
Network. Twitter. Accessed April 3. https://twitter.com/seichonoie.

24

CIR Seminar – Tokyo 2014
Weber, Max. 1968. Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building; Selected
Papers. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

25