I don't have time to delve into deconstructing some of the pretenses pouring forth from these people, but since there are audio interview with them regarding their recently published books, I'm putting this up for future reference.
In particular, pay attention to what Joylon Baraka Thomas has to say about State Shinto (which eventually facilitated Japanese fascism) as opposed to the religious freedom guaranteed under the post WWII Constitution of Japan.
Faking Liberties
Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan
https://newbooksnetwork.com/jolyon-baraka-thomas-faking-liberties-religious-freedom-in-american-occupied-japan-u-chicago-press-2019/?fbclid=IwAR2mAdb1Oep2wDKuuKzbnidgS8uVizPtJpWBbLTpbhq6ITBygn4SrYIYxj0
He attempts to draw parallels to Judaism with respect to particularism (in State Shinto), which I find extremely interesting. I don't know if he's Jewish or not, but a number of the CIA pseudo-scholars whose so-called research (one book published by Harvard) I've analyzed here are Jewish. It seems that he thinks the Zionist fascists and Shinto fascists have been given a raw deal in the world of scholarship.
I've avoided talking about "The Jewish Connection" because I tired of getting called an anit-Semite on Wikipedia editing various pages related to history with an element of religious import that the Freemason, etc., secret society gangs, etc., seem to be interested in distorting for political purposes.
So, while I have addressed the overarching question related to universalism and particularism here and in the US lawsuit against the CIA, I have avoided going into the ensuing particulars(!)
https://kyoto-inside-out.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-and-why-cia-targets-culture-intro.html
The other book is about the Soka Gakkai, which I've sketched a little about here as a pseudo-religious group connected to the CIA/LDP that eventually got its own pseudo-Buddhist political party in the form of the Komeito that is aligned with the CIA installed LDP, a State Shinto supporting group with parallels to the pseudo patriotism of pseudo-Christian Evangelical bigots like Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Donald Trump et al. in the USA.
His talk is a little more interesting substance wise, but it is an inversion, insofar as the state was connected to the rise of Daisaku Ikeda as a charismatic leader of a pseudo-religious movement that aimed to supplant the actual Buddhist sect of Nichiren Buddhism, historically a very politically active sect.
Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution
The Rise of A Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan