On 22 July 1979, Nittatsu died of chronic heart disease without directly naming his successor. Shinno Abe, at that time a young priest, insisted that he was secretly given permission to be the next High Priest by Nittatsu before he had died and succeeded him as the 67th High Priest, Nikken Abe. He changed his predecessor's policy and gave Sōka Gakkai a chance to cooperate with him. But the priests (who were mainly the disciples of the former High Priest) who later formed the Shōshinkai disagreed, claiming Sōka Gakkai had only taken its deviations underground.