The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Soka Gakkai

(Value Creation Society), a Buddhist sect in Japan, which originated with the small Value Creation Academic Society (1937–13), founded by the schoolteachers T. Makiguchi and J. Toda.

The Soka Gakkai was reestablished by Toda in 1946. It has propagated Buddhist doctrines, to which it has added a “theory of value,” according to which the meaning of life consists of beauty, gain, and good. It has also proselytized actively. As a result, it has won a rapidly growing influence among the nonorganized semiproletarian and proletarian strata of the urban population and among small businessmen. The Soka Gakkai is distinguished from other religious sects by its well-defined organization—from families at the lowest level to units, groups, districts, chapters, general chapters, and headquarters at higher levels—by its rigid discipline, and by its active participation in political life. By 1974, Soka Gakkai membership in Japan had grown to more than 7 million families, and chapters are being founded abroad. Soka Gakkai lays particular stress on youth work.

The Soka Gakkai’s political activity derives from Toda’s notion of establishing a “just and pacifist state” and from the conception of its president—from 1960, D. Ikeda—of a “third civilization” or “neosocialism,” a conception that represents a kind of petit bourgeois “third road” theory. Politically, the Soka Gakkai’s interests are represented by the Komeito (Clean Government) Party.

REFERENCE

Derzhavin, I. K. Soka-gakkai-Komeito. Moscow, 1972.

A. I. SENATOROV

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References in periodicals archive

When the kitchen opened, donations flowed from sponsors among them, New Gateway Eagles Club, the United President Duterte Group, ONE CDO, Soka Gakkai International-CDO, and PDP-Laban in response to the President's promise that no one will go hungry in his administration.

A kitchen closes

Critique: Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and anti-nuclear activist, Daisaku Ikeda (born 2 January 1928, Japan) is the founder and president of the Soka Gakkai International.

Hope Is a Decision: Selected Essays

The topics include thinking through the cultural politics of race, sexuality, and gender in Western Buddhism, the culture of the Friends of Western Buddhist Order, the Soka Gakkai International in Britain as context for self-fashioning, and cosmopolitan dharma: diversity and the embracing of the "other" in Western Buddhism.

Cosmopolitan Dharma: Race, Sexuality, and Gender in British Buddhism

Other speakers included the Rev John Hellewell, from Christ Church, Anne Linehan from the Nichiren Buddhism (Japanese) Soka Gakkai International and Mr Rajeev Dewedi from the Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple in Bradford.

Faiths discuss refugee crisis

The kindergarten at the centre of this research is established on Soka ideals, the mother organisation being Soka Gakkai International (SGI).

Exploring educators' perspectives: how does learning through 'happiness' promote quality early childhood education?

Daisaku Ikeda (born January 2, 1928, Japan) is the founder and current president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the international offshoot of Soka Gakkai, a Nichiren Buddhist lay association which has, by its own account, more than 12 million members.

The Living Buddha

THE journalist Clark Strand believes that Soka Gakkai International, the largest lay Buddhist group in the world at 12 million members in 192 countries, can serve as a role model to other religions striving to be relevant today.

Waking the Buddha: How the Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History Is Changing Our Concept of Religion

Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan: Soka Gakkai Youth And Komeito.

Under scrutiny: youth in contemporary Japan

Soka Gakkai International Gulf (SGI-Gulf) in partnership with the education cluster of Tecom, Dubai Knowledge Village and Dubai International Academic City, successfully hosted the third edition of "The Poetic Heart: Connecting Humanity" on Thursday.

Poetry symposium held to promote harmony

For the LDP's junior coalition partner, the New Komeito party, higher voter turnout may lead to a fall in its share of the vote as it is backed by the major lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai.

Japanese parties concerned about voter turnout before election