Soka Gakkai Buddhist Association Celebrates 80 Years of Empowerment for Peace

TOKYO, November 4, 2010 - The Soka Gakkai Buddhist association celebrated its 80th anniversary with
a commemorative meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on November 3 attended by about
5,000 people, including 250 members of Soka Gakkai International (SGI)
representing 65 countries and territories.

At the meeting, orchestral, choral and other musical performances were
interspersed with a speech by Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada and
presentations from youth representatives outlining their vision of how the
Buddhist organization will develop in the coming years.

SGI President Daisaku Ikeda sent a message in which he encouraged the
youth members to further exert themselves in order to contribute to world
peace. "The harmonious and friendly solidarity which you demonstrate," he
stated, "is a portrait of future peace such as humankind has long dreamed
of."

The SGI movement traces its roots to November 18, 1930, the day on which
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) and Josei Toda (1900-58) published
Makiguchi's theory of "Soka" or value-creating education. Both were
practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism and, over the course of the 1930s, the
organization developed an increasingly religious orientation.

After being imprisoned as "thought criminals" for opposing the militarist
government, Makiguchi died in prison in 1944 while Toda was released shortly
before the end of the war. Toda rebuilt Soka Gakkai as a lay Buddhist
organization with a message of self-empowerment, and the movement grew
rapidly.

Daisaku Ikeda, Toda's successor, was 32 when he became president of Soka
Gakkai in 1960. Under his leadership, the movement began an era of innovation
and expansion, and in 1975, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) was founded.
Today it is a network of socially engaged Buddhists committed to promoting
peace, culture and education with 90 constituent organizations and 12 million
members in 192 countries and territories.

SGI members practice the Buddhism taught by the 13th-century Japanese
monk Nichiren (1222-82), who was convinced that the Lotus Sutra of Shakyamuni
encapsulates the core message of Buddhism - that all people can attain
enlightenment. This is expressed within SGI as "human revolution" - the
belief that a profound transformation within a single individual can have a
positive influence on an entire society.

SGI is also active as an NGO with formal ties to the UN, promoting
activities for peace and disarmament, human rights education and
sustainability. It has also created traveling exhibitions and promoted
campaigns to highlight education for sustainable development and galvanize
public support for nuclear abolition.

Ikeda is widely recognized as a Buddhist philosopher, author and
peacebuilder. Fifty of his dialogues, such as those with Mikhail Gorbachev
and Linus Pauling, have been published to date. He has devoted himself to
building bridges of understanding among people of different cultures and
faiths, and worked consistently to restore trust between Japan and Asian
countries that suffered from Japanese militarism during World War II.

As a result of his efforts to promote peace and humanistic education,
Ikeda has been widely recognized by academic institutions throughout the
world. He is the recipient of some 300 honorary degrees and professorships
from universities in over 50 countries, from Moscow State University to the
University of Hong Kong and the University of Glasgow in Scotland, UK.

Details of the 80 years of Soka Gakkai's history can be found at
www.sgi.org

Further information about Daisaku Ikeda can be found here:
www.daisakuikeda.org

    Contact:
    Joan Anderson
    Office of Public Information
    Soka Gakkai International
    Tel: +81-3-5360-9475
    Fax: +81-3-5360-9885
    E-mail: janderson[at]sgi.gr.jp

Joan Anderson, Office of Public Information, Soka Gakkai International, +81-3-5360-9475, or fax, +81-3-5360-9885, janderson[at ]sgi.gr.jp