A well known religious leader throughout the world, Ikeda Daisaku is third president and honorary international president of Soka Gakkai, the largest of the Japanese new religions or shinshukyo (see New Religion (Japan)). Ikeda Daisaku was born in 1928 in Tokyo to a seaweed processing family. His father was both poor and suffered from ill health. After finishing primary education, he studied at night schools while working at different times in an ironworks, printing shops and in other employment. He met Toda Josei in 1947, and became a member of the Soka Gakkai. From 1949 while he was working for Toda’s company selling educational materials his involvement in and commitment to Soka Gakkai deepened. His talent was recognized by Toda, and he was appointed as the director of the general affairs division of Soka Gakkai after Toda’s death, and became the third president in 1960.
The rapid expansion of the organization continued for a decade after Ikeda’s becoming the president. Officially the membership was said to have exceeded 3 million households by 1962, and 7.5 million by 1970. In the mean time, Soka Gakkai also made ground in the political arena: the Komei Political League was established in 1961 followed by the Komeito party in 1964. In 1967, it won seats in the House of Representatives, and increased its number of seats to 55 in the 1976 election. Ikeda advocated ‘Human Revolution’ and ‘The Third Civilization’ as ideas to connect the reform in individual persons and social reform.
However, when Soka Gakkai prevented the proposed publication of Soka Gakkai o Kiru (Criticizing the Soka Gakkai) by Fujiwara Kotatsu in 1969 it was not only accused of infringing the freedom of the press but also for its closeness to the Komeito party, thus contravening the principle of separation between politics and religion. Ikeda was forced to resign as its president and become honorary president. This incident was a turning point in the history of Soka Gakkai in Japan and its expansion there began to slow rapidly. Its serious disagreement sometime later with the traditional Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, also damaged its growth, and relations between the two groups were completely broken off in 1991.
Meanwhile, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) became increasingly active abroad. It has attracted a relatively large following in several countries outside Japan including Korea and Brazil, and has engaged in and promoted numerous humanitarian activities and projects including the destruction of all nuclear weapons and the establishment of peace between nations. Ikeda retains the respect even veneration of followers everywhere overseas
