Soka Gakkai

Sōka Gakkai
創価学会
	Soka Gakkai flag
Formation	November 18, 1930
Founders	Tsunesaburō Makiguchi; Jōsei Toda; Daisaku Ikeda;
Type	New religious movement
Headquarters	〒160-8583,; Tokyo Shinjuku-Ku, Shinanomachi (信濃町)
Membership	11 million according to SG / between 3 and 4 million according to academics
President	Minoru Harada
Website	www.sokagakkai.jp
Formerly called	Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai (創価教育学会)

Soka Gakkai (Japanese: 創価学会, Hepburn: Sōka Gakkai, "Value-Creation Society") is a Japanese Buddhist religious movement based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese 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".^[1]

The movement was founded by educators Makiguchi and Toda on 18 November 1930, and held its inaugural meeting in 1937.^[2] 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, it's expansion was led by its former third president Daisaku Ikeda.

According to its own account, Soka Gakkai has 11 million members in 192 countries and territories around the world. However, this figure is not supported by any independent count. According to the work of American academic Levi McLaughlin,^[3] membership in Japan is closer to 2-3% of the country's population, or between 2.4 and 4 million people.

Moving the group toward mainstream acceptance, the organization is still viewed with suspicion in Japan and has found itself embroiled in public controversies^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] 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.^[11]^[12]^[13]^: 13

^ "At a Glance". Soka Global (SGI). n.d. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
^ Jacqueline I. Stone, Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism), University of Hawaii Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-8248-2771-7, page 454.
^ Levi McLaughlin, Soka Gakkai's Human Revolution : The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan, Hawaii, University of Hawai‘i Press, 31 décembre 2018
^ Melton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin, eds. (2010). Religions of the world: a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 2656–2659. ISBN 978-1-59884-203-6.
^ Phillip 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."
^ Wellman, James K. Jr.; Lombardi, Clark B., eds. (2012-08-16). Religion and human security: a global perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-19-982775-6. "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."
^ Seagar, Richard (2006). Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, the Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism. University of California Press. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-52024577-8. Since its founding in the 1930s, the SG has repeatedly found itself at the center of controversies, some linked to major struggles over the future of Japan, others to intense internal religious debates that erupted into public view. Over the course of its history, however, it has also grown into a large, politically active, and very well-established network of institutions, whose membership represents something on the order of a tenth of the Japanese population. One result is that there is a fractured view of the movement in Japan. On one hand, it is seen as a highly articulated, politically and socially engaged movement with an expressed message of human empowerment and global peace. On the other, it has been charged with an array of nefarious activities that range from fellow traveling with Communists and sedition to aspiring to world domination.
^ Lewis, James R. (2003). Scholarship and the Delegitimation of Religion in Legitimating new religions ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. pp. 217–218. ISBN 978-0-8135-3324-7. ""For over half a century, one of the most controversial new religions in Japan has been Soka Gakkai. Although this group has matured into a responsible member of society, its ongoing connection with reformist political activity served to keep it in the public eye. Until relatively recently, it also had a high profile as the result of sensationalist and often irresponsible media coverage. Apparently as a direct consequence of the social consensus against this religion, some scholars have felt free to pen harsh critiques of Soka Gakkai--critiques in which the goal of promoting understanding has been eclipsed by efforts to delegitimate Soka Gakkai by portraying it as deluded, wrong, and/or socially dangerous. Soka Gakkai also spread to the United States and Europe, where it aroused controversy as a result of its intense proselytizing activities. Although it was never as controversial as groups like the Hare Krishna Movement or the Unification Church, Soka Gakkai—which in the United States went under the name Nichiren Shoshu of America after Soka Gakkai broke with Nichiren Shōshū—was not infrequently stereotyped as a brainwashing cult, particularly by anti-cult authors."
^ Beasley, W. G., ed. (1977). Modern Japan: Aspects of History, Literature, and Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 190–196. ISBN 978-0-520-03495-2.
Hunt, Arnold D. (1975). Japan's Militant Buddhism: A Survey of the Soka Gakkai Movement. Salisbury East, S. Aust.: Salisbury College of Advanced Education. pp. 1–13. ISBN 978-0-909383-06-0.
Kitagawa, Joseph M. (1990). Religion in Japanese history ([Reprint]. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 329–330. ISBN 978-0-231-02838-7.
^ Cite error: The named reference brannenMilitant was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ McElhinney, David (2022-01-11). "Op-ed: Frankly, Cult Thinking is Everywhere in Japan". Tokyo Weekender. Retrieved 2024-01-09. Called a cult by some, Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, based on the teachings of 13th-century priest Nichiren, claims to have 8.27-million-member households in Japan....
^ Sakai, Noboru (2017-08-27). "The Roots of the Contemporary Image of Japanese Cults". electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies. Retrieved 2024-01-09. Note 1: ...Regardless of its reputation since the end of World War II (both positive and negative), Soka Gakkai began to be called a cult by some people after the Tokyo subway sarin attack and the clear appearance of Aum Supreme Truth, so at least Soka Gakkai itself is not the root image of cults in Japan independently, though it may also, even partly, be the case that the early stage of Soka Gakkai gave some sort of conceptual image of a cult. ...
^ Introvigne, Massimo (November–December 2019). "Soka Gakkai in Italy: Success and Controversies" (PDF). The Journal of CESNUR. 3 (6): 3–17. Retrieved January 18, 2024. Although annoying for the members, who are insulted by their opponents through the social media and should occasionally face hostile press reports and TV shows, anti-cult criticism of Soka Gakkai in Italy has been so far largely irrelevant.

[1] "At a Glance". Soka Global (SGI). n.d. Retrieved 28 January 2021.

[2] Jacqueline I. Stone, Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism), University of Hawaii Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-8248-2771-7, page 454.

[3] Levi McLaughlin, Soka Gakkai's Human Revolution : The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan, Hawaii, University of Hawai‘i Press, 31 décembre 2018

[religionsworld-4] Melton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin, eds. (2010). Religions of the world: a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 2656–2659. ISBN 978-1-59884-203-6.

[5] Phillip 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."

[wellman-6] Wellman, James K. Jr.; Lombardi, Clark B., eds. (2012-08-16). Religion and human security: a global perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-19-982775-6. "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."

[7] Seagar, Richard (2006). Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, the Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism. University of California Press. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-52024577-8. Since its founding in the 1930s, the SG has repeatedly found itself at the center of controversies, some linked to major struggles over the future of Japan, others to intense internal religious debates that erupted into public view. Over the course of its history, however, it has also grown into a large, politically active, and very well-established network of institutions, whose membership represents something on the order of a tenth of the Japanese population. One result is that there is a fractured view of the movement in Japan. On one hand, it is seen as a highly articulated, politically and socially engaged movement with an expressed message of human empowerment and global peace. On the other, it has been charged with an array of nefarious activities that range from fellow traveling with Communists and sedition to aspiring to world domination.

[Lewis217-8] Lewis, James R. (2003). Scholarship and the Delegitimation of Religion in Legitimating new religions ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. pp. 217–218. ISBN 978-0-8135-3324-7. ""For over half a century, one of the most controversial new religions in Japan has been Soka Gakkai. Although this group has matured into a responsible member of society, its ongoing connection with reformist political activity served to keep it in the public eye. Until relatively recently, it also had a high profile as the result of sensationalist and often irresponsible media coverage. Apparently as a direct consequence of the social consensus against this religion, some scholars have felt free to pen harsh critiques of Soka Gakkai--critiques in which the goal of promoting understanding has been eclipsed by efforts to delegitimate Soka Gakkai by portraying it as deluded, wrong, and/or socially dangerous. Soka Gakkai also spread to the United States and Europe, where it aroused controversy as a result of its intense proselytizing activities. Although it was never as controversial as groups like the Hare Krishna Movement or the Unification Church, Soka Gakkai—which in the United States went under the name Nichiren Shoshu of America after Soka Gakkai broke with Nichiren Shōshū—was not infrequently stereotyped as a brainwashing cult, particularly by anti-cult authors."

[9] Beasley, W. G., ed. (1977). Modern Japan: Aspects of History, Literature, and Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 190–196. ISBN 978-0-520-03495-2.
Hunt, Arnold D. (1975). Japan's Militant Buddhism: A Survey of the Soka Gakkai Movement. Salisbury East, S. Aust.: Salisbury College of Advanced Education. pp. 1–13. ISBN 978-0-909383-06-0.
Kitagawa, Joseph M. (1990). Religion in Japanese history ([Reprint]. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 329–330. ISBN 978-0-231-02838-7.

[brannenMilitant-10] Cite error: The named reference brannenMilitant was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[McElhinney_2022_a248-11] McElhinney, David (2022-01-11). "Op-ed: Frankly, Cult Thinking is Everywhere in Japan". Tokyo Weekender. Retrieved 2024-01-09. Called a cult by some, Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, based on the teachings of 13th-century priest Nichiren, claims to have 8.27-million-member households in Japan....

[electronic_journal_of_contemporary_japanese_studies_2017_j471-12] Sakai, Noboru (2017-08-27). "The Roots of the Contemporary Image of Japanese Cults". electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies. Retrieved 2024-01-09. Note 1: ...Regardless of its reputation since the end of World War II (both positive and negative), Soka Gakkai began to be called a cult by some people after the Tokyo subway sarin attack and the clear appearance of Aum Supreme Truth, so at least Soka Gakkai itself is not the root image of cults in Japan independently, though it may also, even partly, be the case that the early stage of Soka Gakkai gave some sort of conceptual image of a cult. ...

[13] Introvigne, Massimo (November–December 2019). "Soka Gakkai in Italy: Success and Controversies" (PDF). The Journal of CESNUR. 3 (6): 3–17. Retrieved January 18, 2024. Although annoying for the members, who are insulted by their opponents through the social media and should occasionally face hostile press reports and TV shows, anti-cult criticism of Soka Gakkai in Italy has been so far largely irrelevant.

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