Born in 1928 in Tokyo, Daisaku Ikeda served as the third president and subsequently Honorary President of Soka Gakkai, as well as the president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI). Among the institutions he founded are Soka University, Soka Women’s College, Soka University of America, the Soka School System, the Min-On Concert Association, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, and the Toda Peace Institute and Policy Research.

He dedicated his life to the promotion of peace, culture, and education, engaging in numerous dialogues with the world’s leading thinkers and leaders. Mr Ikeda received numerous honors, including the United Nations Peace Medal, the National Order of the Southern Cross from the Republic of Brazil, the Honorary Cross of Science and Arts from the Austrian Ministry of Education, the Kenya Oral Literature Award, and the World Poet Laureate Award, as well as more than 400 academic honors from universities and institutions worldwide.

The Soka (value-creation) School system, puts into practice the educational approach formulated by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, first Soka Gakkai president, and Josei Toda. It is a non-denominational school system based on the vision of fostering each child’s unique creative potential and cultivating an ethic of peace, social contribution and global consciousness. The school system runs from preschool through graduate study and includes an international school in Negeri Sembilan State, Malaysia, a university in Tokyo, Japan, and another in California, USA.