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lead=yes is a Japanese new religion led by Minoru Harada since December 2023 based on the teachings of the 13th-century Buddhist priest Nichiren. It claims the largest membership among Nichiren Buddhist groups. The organization bases its teachings on Nichiren's interpretation of the Lotus Sutra and places chanting Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō at the center of devotional practice. The organization promotes its goals as supporting "peace, culture, and education".
Soka Gakkai was founded by educators Makiguchi and Toda on 18 November 1930, and held its inaugural meeting in 1937.Jacqueline I. Stone, Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism), University of Hawaii Press 2003, , page 454. It was disbanded during the Second World War when much of the leadership was imprisoned for violations of the 1925 Peace Preservation Law and charges of lèse-majesté. After the war, its expansion was led by its former third president Daisaku Ikeda. In Japan, Soka Gakkai is the head of Komeito, a conservative party allied with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and founded by Daisaku Ikeda in 1964. It heads a financial, educational and media empire,Levi McLaughlin, Soka Gakkai's Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan, University of Hawaii Press 2019: "Conceiving of Soka Gakkai as a mimetic nation-state makes sense of the full range of its component elements, which include its affiliated political party Komeito (Clean Government Party), a bureaucracy overseen by powerful presidents, a media empire, a private school system, massive cultural enterprises, de facto sovereign territory controlled by organized cadres, and many other nation- state-like appurtenances." (p.ix) including newspapers, publishing houses, financial holdings and a network of schools.
Soka Gakkai says it has 11million members in 192 countries and territories around the world. However, this figure is not supported by any independent count. According to the American academic Levi McLaughlin,Levi McLaughlin, Soka Gakkai's Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan, Hawaii, University of Hawai‘i Press, 31 December 2018 membership in Japan is closer to 2–3% of the country's population, or between 2.4 and 4million people.
Soka Gakkai is still viewed with suspicion in Japan and has been embroiled in public controversies. (2025). 9781598842036, ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598842036Phillip E. Hammond and David W. Machacek, "Soka Gakkai International" in J. Gordon Melton, Martin Baumann (eds.), Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, 2010, p. 2658. "Daisaku Ikeda (b. 1928), Soka Gakkai's charismatic third president, led the international growth of the movement. Although Ikeda and his successor, Einosuke Akiya, have gone to great lengths to improve the movement's public image, suspicion remains. Soka Gakkai's political involvement through the organ of the Komeito, a political party founded by the Soka Gakkai, and the near godlike reverence that members have for President Ikeda have tended to perpetuate public distrust. Although it has been subjected to a generalized suspicion toward Eastern religious movements in the United States, Europe, and South America, the movement's history outside of Japan has been tranquil by comparison to its Japanese history." "When I conducted a survey of 235 Doshisha University students a few years ago asking their opinions about the Gakkai and how much they knew about its peace education programs, over 80 percent responded that they had a negative image of the movement and about 60 percent thought that its 'peace movement' is little more than promotional propaganda. The few respondents with a positive image were either Soka Gakkai members, were related members, or were friends of members." "For over half a century, one of the most controversial new religions in Japan has been Soka Gakkai."
Komeito, a political party closely aligned with Soka Gakkai and founded by elements of its lay membership, entered a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democratic Party in 1999 and is currently a junior partner in government. Soka Gakkai has been described as a cult.
The doctrine of Soka Gakkai derives from Nichiren, who promulgated the Lotus Sutra as he perceived its application to the epoch in which he and people today live. (2025). 9781891928154, Educator's International Press. ISBN 9781891928154 Soka Gakkai gives significance to Nichiren's writings, referred to as , and refers especially to the collection of Nichiren's writings that Nichiko Hori compiled and Jōsei Toda, published as in 1952.
Josei Toda studied a passage from the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra (considered the introduction to the Lotus Sutra) that describes Buddhahood by means of 34 negations – for example, that it is "neither being nor non-being, this nor that, square nor round". From this, he concluded that "Buddha" is life or life force. (2025). 9780199240395, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199240395
Toda considered the concept of "Buddha as life (force)" means that Buddhism entails transforming society. Ikeda has been quoted as saying, "Faith is firm belief in the universe and the life force. Only a person of firm faith can lead a good and vigorous life... Buddhist doctrine is a philosophy that has human life as its ultimate object, and our Human Revolution movement is an act of reform aimed at opening up the inner universe, the creative life force within each individual, and leading to human freedom."
The concept of life force is central to the Soka Gakkai's conception of the role of religion and the application of Nichiren's teachings. Ikeda states that "our health, courage, wisdom, joy, desire to improve, self-discipline, and so on, could all be said to depend on our life force".
Since the mid-1990s, the issue of the oneness of mentor and disciple has received more prominence in Soka Gakkai. There is a strong emphasis on "cultivating all members... in discipleship" through forging "affective one-to-one relationships with Ikeda".
Soka Gakkai's history is closely intertwined with the study of the Lotus Sutra. Josei Toda began the postwar reconstruction by lecturing on the sutra, the study of which led to what Soka Gakkai considers his enlightenment (see "Life Force and Human Revolution"). After Soka Gakkai's ex-communication by Nichiren Shōshū, Daisaku Ikeda conducted dialogue sessions on the Lotus Sutra, which resulted in the publication of a six-volume work called The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra.
Ikeda explains that negative karma is subsumed in the world of Buddhahood and is purified by its power. Importantly, Soka Gakkai members believe effects are determined simultaneously with causes, though they remain latent until the right external influences bring them to fruition. Soka Gakkai Buddhism teaches that even the most stubborn karma can be overcome as one reveals one's Buddha nature in this lifetime.
The believers of the organization chant these words reputed to change their lives, including the natural environments in which they live. Accordingly, the intended goal is to produce an internal change that serves as the motivator for external social change. Furthermore, the organization teaches that chanting cannot be divorced from action.
The organization teaches that in contrast to worshipping the Buddha or Dharma as Anthropomorphism personifications, Nichiren deliberately made a calligraphic mandala, rather than Buddhist statues as the central object of devotion. American author, Richard Seager explains the following:
The Soka Gakkai often uses Nichiren's metaphor of a mirror to explain its faith in the Gohonzon. The Gohonzon "reflects life's innate enlightened nature and cause it to permeate every aspect of member's lives". Members chant to the Gohonzon "to reveal the power of their own enlightened wisdom and vow to put it to use for the good of themselves and others". The organization teaches that a member is considered to be practicing the Lotus Sutra when chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to the Gohonzon.
Believers claim that the Lotus Sutra contains principles or teachings that are not readily apparent. Furthermore, the Soka Gakkai claims that Nichiren revealed these teachings as The "Three Great Secret Laws" namely the following:.
Soka Gakkai practices Nichiren Buddhism as it has been expounded by its three founding presidents, and so also studies their speeches and writings, especially those of third President Daisaku Ikeda. His novelized histories of the movement, The Human Revolution (and its sequel The New Human Revolution) have been said to have "canonical status" as it "functions as a source of inspiration and guidance for members". Study meetings are held monthly. "The tenor of the meetings is one of open discussion rather than didactic teaching..." Discussions on Nichiren's teachings are welcomed, "dictatorial edicts on moral behavior are not."
The Soka Gakkai practice also includes activities beyond the ritualistic, such as meetings, social engagement, and improving one's circumstances; these also have significance as religious activities in the Soka Gakkai. (2025). 9780977924561, Middleway Press. ISBN 9780977924561
At discussion meetings, participants are encouraged to take responsibility "for their own lives and for wider social and global concerns". (2025). 9781845192587, Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 9781845192587 The format is an example of how the Soka Gakkai is able to "dispense with much of the apparatus of conventional church organization". (2025). 9780199240395, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199240395
The reason for propagation, as explained by Josei Toda, is "not to make the Soka Gakkai larger but for you to become happier ... There are many people in the world who are suffering from poverty and disease. The only way to make them really happy is to shakubuku them." (2025). 9780231159739, Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231159739
In 1970 Ikeda prescribed a more moderate approach, "urging its members to adopt an attitude of openness to others"; the method Soka Gakkai prefers since then is called shoju– "dialogue or conversation designed to persuade people rather than convert them", though this is often referred to still as "shakubuku spirit".
The membership eventually came to change from teachers interested in educational reform to people from all walks of life, drawn by the religious elements of Makiguchi's beliefs in Nichiren Buddhism. The group had a focus on proselytization growing from an attendance of 60 people at its first meeting to about 300 at its next meeting in 1940.Kisala, pp. 141–142
With its leadership decimated, the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai disbanded.Robert L. Ramseyer. "The Soka Gakkai". "The neighbor complained to the police, who arrested Jinno and a director of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai named Arimura." In Beardsley, Richard K., editor, Studies in Japanese culture I. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965. p. 156 (2025). 9781576072387, ABC- CLIO. ISBN 9781576072387 During interrogation, Makiguchi had insisted that "The emperor is an ordinary man ... the emperor makes mistakes like anyone else". The treatment in prison was harsh, and within a year, all but Makiguchi, Toda, and one other director had recanted and been released. On November 18, 1944, Makiguchi died of malnutrition in prison, at the age of 73.
Jōsei Toda was released from prison on July 3, 1945, after serving two years of imprisonment on the charges of lèse majesté. He immediately set out to rebuild the organization that had been repressed and dismantled by the government during the war. (2025). 9789401029964, Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789401029964
Noah Brannen, a Christian missionary writing in 1969, describes the Soka Gakkai's study program at this point as "the most amazing program of indoctrination Japan has ever seen". New members attended local study lectures, subscribed to weekly and monthly periodicals, studied Toda's commentaries on the Lotus Sutra, took annual study examinations, and were awarded titles for their achievements such as Associate Lecturer, Lecturer, Associate Teacher, or Teacher.
There are several competing narratives that attempt to explain how the Soka Gakkai was able to achieve this rapid growth. One narrative portrays a drive powered by the "seemingly unlimited enthusiasm" of its members that was masterminded by Toda and channeled by his younger followers. The organization's own publications articulate this narrative.
A second narrative examines the Soka Gakkai's expansion through a sociological lens. White, in the first English-language sociological work on the Soka Gakkai, attributes the growth, cohesion, and sustainability of the organization to the organizational skills of its leaders, its system of values and norms that match the individual needs of members, and its ability to adapt to changing times. According to Dator, the organizational structure of the Soka Gakkai, which values individual participation within small heterogeneous groups and parallel peer associations by age, gender, and interests, fulfills members' socio-psychological needs.
A third narrative tracks criticisms of the Soka Gakkai in the popular press and by other Buddhist sects. This narrative implies that the propagation efforts succeeded through intimidating and coercive actions committed by Soka Gakkai members (2025). 9780275987121, Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780275987121 (2025). 9780195146974, Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 9780195146974 such as the practice then of destroying the kamidana of new members. There were reports of isolated incidents of violence conducted by Soka Gakkai members but also incidents directed toward them.
Jōsei Toda was succeeded as president in 1960 by the 32-year-old Daisaku Ikeda. Ikeda urged, from 1964, a gentler approach to proselytizing. (2025). 9789004156944, Brill. ISBN 9789004156944 Under Ikeda's leadership, the organization expanded rapidly, both inside and outside Japan during the 1960s.
Soka Gakkai's own narratives argue that within the first 16 months of Ikeda's presidency the organization grew from 1.3 million to 2.1 million members. By 1967 it grew to 6.2 million families according to its own reporting. By 1968, the daily Seikyo Shimbun newspaper is supposed to have attained a circulation of 3,580,000. Today, the Soka Gakkai claims it has a circulation of 5.5 million copies, but the number is controversial and impossible to verify since Seikyo Shinbun does not belong the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association nor the 日本ABC協会 who are officially in charge of the circulation numbers of Japanese newspapers.
Ikeda also expanded the scope and pattern of the Gakkai's activities. In 1961 he created an arm of the organization, the Culture Bureau, to accommodate nonreligious activities. It had departments for the study and discussion of Economics, Politics, Education, Speech, and, later in the year, the Arts.
Ikeda and his team visited countries in Europe and Southeast Asia in 1961 and the Near and Middle East in 1962. (2025). 9783643901521, Lit. ISBN 9783643901521 By 1967 Ikeda had completed 13 trips abroad to strengthen the overseas organizations. (2025). 9780857722690, I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9780857722690
The Gakkai's first overseas mission, called Nichiren Shoshu of America (NSA), grew rapidly and claimed some 200,000 American adherents by 1970. Ikeda founded Soka Junior and Senior High Schools in 1968 and Soka University in 1971. Soka Gakkai International (SGI) was formally founded in 1975, on Guam. (2025). 9781136673443, Routledge. ISBN 9781136673443
In 2014 the New Komeito was renamed Komeito again. Komeito generally supports the policy agenda of the LDP, including the reinterpretation of the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, proposed in 2014 by LDP Prime Minister Shinzō Abe to allow "collective defense" and to fight in foreign conflicts.
In the 1970s Ikeda helped transition the Soka Gakkai from an internally focused organization centered on its own membership growth to one adopting a focus on a motto of "Peace, Culture, and Education". On October 12, 1972, at the official opening of the Shohondo at Taiseki-ji Ikeda announced the start of the Soka Gakkai's "Phase Two" which would shift direction from aggressive expansion to a movement for international peace through friendship and exchange.
In 1991, the Soka Gakkai had to pay $4.5 million in back taxes on 2.4 billion yen (US$1.7 million) of undeclared income.
Nikken Abe excommunicated Soka Gakkai and its senior leaders in November 1991, citing doctrinal deviations, the Soka Gakkai's usurpation of rites such as the Higan-e equinox ceremonies and funerals without Nichiren Shoshu priests officiating, its defiant staging of Ode to Joy concerts that, for their Christian themes, were incongruent with Nichiren Shoshu doctrine, and a speech (which became public when a recording was leaked) by then Soka Gakkai President Daisaku Ikeda. It also condemned Ikeda for abandoning the aggressive propagation style (shakubuku) that led to some social criticism of the lay group, though not the priesthood. In response, the Soka Gakkai countered by outlining Nichiren Shoshu's deviation from their own interpretation of Nichiren's doctrines, along with accusations of simony and hedonism among its ranking priests.
The priesthood further accused the organization of impiety and sacrilegious behavior, citing the song "Ode to Joy" along with the promotion of its musical performance, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, as evidence for non-Buddhist teachings.
In 2014, the Soka Gakkai rewrote its bylaws to reflect that it no longer had any relationship with Nichiren Shoshu or its doctrine.
Ikeda also founded the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum in 1983. It houses collections of western and oriental art, and has participated in exchanges with museums around the world.Karel Dobbelaere, "Toward a Pillar Organization?" in Global Citizens, Machacek and Wilson (eds.), page=245
The Soka Gakkai has participated in many activities and exhibitions in conjunction with the UN. The Soka Gakkai has established multiple institutions and research facilities.Karel Dobbelaere, "Toward a Pillar Organization?" in Global Citizens, Machacek and Wilson (eds.), pp. 243, 250
This social and cultural projects also appear to be part of a strategy, according to some scholars and critics of Soka Gakkai, which " uses the image and practice of an NGO (to respond) to its own necessity: the recruitment and maintenance of membership" and " tries to create the image of an institution engaged in activities to promote peace, culture and education based on Buddhism, clearly following the tendencies of national politics.".
The basic functional organizational unit is the Block – a group of members in a neighborhood who meet regularly for discussion, study and encouragement. A number of Blocks form a District, and Districts are grouped into Chapters. From there the Soka Gakkai is organized into Areas, Regions, Prefectures and, finally, Territories – all under the umbrella of the national organization. Discussion and study meetings, the basic organizational activities, are conducted mainly at the Block level, though there are occasional meetings held at every level.
In a 1996 NHK survey, it was found that Soka Gakkai adherent made up somewhere around 3.2% of the Japanese population, or somewhere around 4 million individuals. Religion in Japan by prefecture, 1996. English language bar table. According to statistics from the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a body of the Japanese Ministry of Education), the Japanese organization had 5.42 million individual members in 2000.
In a 2002–2003 survey of 602 Soka Gakkai adherents living in Sapporo, Hokkaido who had at least one child over the age of 18, it was found that 65.9% of those members' adult children were also themselves active members. Additionally, it was found that among the siblings of 418 second-generation members, collectively speaking, 69.5% of all those siblings were also active members. A further analysis found that "higher degrees of parental religiosity, better family relationships, and higher levels of participation in youth groups" contributed to higher degrees of religiosity among Soka Gakkai children during middle school years, although this effect was more pronounced in women than in men.
A study in Europe found that most of new members joined because of the personalities of the people they met within the organization; but the biggest reason for continuing is the positive changes they see in their own lives. (1998). 9781560851530, Signature Books. ISBN 9781560851530
Though, it has been sued by Japanese tax authorities in 1991 for evading taxes on profits of 2.3 billion yen, which were obtained through tombstone transactions.
According to the magazine Shûkan Daiyamondo (June 2016), the assets of the organization include fourteen corporations, investments in 331 other companies for 18 billion yens, holding overseas, and real estate holdings. Forbes magazine estimated (2004) that the organization has an income of at least $1.5 billion per year. In 2008, religion scholar Hiroshi Shimada has estimated the wealth of the Soka Gakkai at ¥500 billion.
The Soka Gakkai owns publishing companies, in Japan but also abroad. They are in charge of the translation and publishing of The Human Revolution, Daisaku's Ikeda novel (World Tribune Press in the USA ; Eternal Ganges in India ; Soka Gakkai International Publishers Group in Germany...)
In 2015, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi signed an agreement that recognizes the Soka Gakkai as a "Concordat" that grants the religions status in "a special 'club' of denominations consulted by the government in certain occasions, and, perhaps more importantly, to be partially financed by taxpayers' money." Eleven other religious denominations share this status.
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