# Soka Gakkai International

Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is an international Nichiren Buddhist organization founded in 1975 by Daisaku Ikeda, as an umbrella organization of Soka Gakkai.
It is run by two vice-presidents, including Hiromasa Ikeda, son of the founder. It claims 12 million adherents, but scholars claim the number is overestimated. Recent scholarship estimates Soka Gakkai believers around 2.5 million people in Japan.
SGI is one of the 6000 organizations awarded a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, since 1983.

## History

The Soka Gakkai International (SGI) was formed at a conference on January 26, 1975, on the island of Guam. Daisaku Ikeda was its first president.
In the first year of his presidency, Ikeda visited the United States, Canada, and Brazil, and the Soka Gakkai's first American headquarters officially opened in Los Angeles in 1963.
In May 2015, the SGI-USA was one of the organizing groups for the first-ever Buddhist conference at the White House.

## Organization

The Soka Gakkai International comprises a global network of affiliated organizations. As of 2011, the SGI reported active national organizations in 192 countries and territories with a total of approximately 12 million members. These figures are, however, impossible to verify because there is no list or independent count.
The SGI is supposed to be independent of the Soka Gakkai (the domestic Japanese organization), but are headquartered in Tokyo. SGI headquarters in Tokyo has awarded funding grants to smaller national organizations for projects such as land acquisition and the construction of new buildings. SGI-affiliated organizations outside Japan are forbidden to engage directly in politics. The Tokyo headquarters of SGI disseminates doctrinal and teaching materials to all national organizations around the world. The Tokyo headquarters also serves as a meeting place for national leaders to come together and exchange information and ideas.
National SGI organizations operate autonomously and all affairs are conducted in the local language. National organizations generally raise their own operational funds;
The election or nomination of leaders is typically not decided by the SGI's general membership but by a board of directors. Leadership below national staff, however, has been liberalized; in the United States for instance, the nomination and approval of leaders includes both members and organizational leaders in the process. Author Karel Dobbelaere notes the election of the presidents, as well as a process of "nomination, review and approval that involves both peers and leaders" in choosing other leaders.

## Demographics

The Soka Gakkai International is notable among Buddhist organizations for the racial and ethnic diversity of its members. It has been characterized as the world's largest and most ethnically diverse Buddhist group. Professor Susumu Shimazono suggested several reasons for this: the strongly felt needs of individuals in their daily lives, its solutions to discord in interpersonal relations, its practical teachings that offer concrete solutions for carrying on a stable social life, and its provision of a place where congenial company and a spirit of mutual support may be found. Peter Clarke wrote that the SGI appeals to non-Japanese in part because "no one is obliged to abandon their native culture or nationality in order to fully participate in the spiritual and cultural life of the movement." In 2015, Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported that half of all Buddhists in Italy are SGI members.

## Initiatives

The SGI defines itself as a movement for contributing to peace, culture and education" based on its "interpretation and practical application of the ideas in the Lotus Sutra.
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", analyses scholar Suzana Ramos Coutinho Bornholdt in Japanese Buddhism and Social Action: the case of Soka Gakkai.

### Nuclear disarmament

Since 2007, the SGI has collaborated closely with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to develop educational programs and raise awareness on nuclear disarmament, particularly among young people. The SGI also partnered with ICAN to promote the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted at the United Nations in July 2017, and for which ICAN was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN, stated in a July 2017 interview that the "SGI has been one of our greatest partners in the fight to abolish nuclear weapons."
To further increase public awareness of the anti-nuclear movement, the SGI also created "The People's Decade" campaign in 2007
According to Pax Christi International, on March 28, 2017, a joint statement of Faith Communities Concerned about Nuclear Weapons, initiated by the SGI, was delivered by Pax Christi Philippines during the first UN negotiating conference for the treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. More than 20 religious leaders affirmed through the joint statement their shared "aspirations for peace and for a world where people live without fear," praising world leaders in attendance for "the courage to begin these negotiations" and calling on States not in attendance to join the June–July session of the conference.

### Consultative status of UN Council

AS 6,494 NGOs, SGI has been in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 1983, one of six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization. The council does not make decisions, but can provide the Economic and Social Council with recommendations.
As an NGO working with the United Nations, SGI has been active in public education with a focus mainly on peace and nuclear weapons disarmament, human rights and sustainable development. SGI benefits from the roster status, the least close to the decision-making body (UN Consultative Status, art.24).

### Environmental awareness

The SGI also promotes environmental initiatives. It has tree planting projects and the SGI's Amazon Ecological Conservation Center, which is administered by SGI-Brazil. The center is engaged in reforestation, the creation of a regional seed bank, and experiments in sustainable agroforestry.
One scholar cites Daisaku Ikeda, SGI's president, describing such initiatives as a Buddhist-based impetus for direct public engagement in parallel with legal efforts to address environmental concerns. In India, the Bharat Soka Gakkai (the SGI of India) debuted the traveling exhibit "Seeds of Hope," a joint initiative of the SGI and Earth Charter International.
In November 2015, the SGI signed on to the Buddhist Climate Change Statement representing "over a billion Buddhists worldwide" in a call to action submitted to world leaders at the 21st session of UN climate change talks held in Paris. The statement affirms that Buddhist spirituality compels environmental protection and expresses solidarity with Catholic and Muslim leaders who have taken a similar stance.

### Aid work

After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, local Soka Gakkai facilities became refugee shelters and distribution centers for relief supplies. Efforts also included worldwide fundraising for the victims, youth groups, and spiritual support. In 2014, SGI-Chile members collected supplies to deliver to emergency services and refugee centers after that country's devastating Iquique earthquake.

### Interfaith dialogue

In 2015, SGI-USA was part of the organizing committee that convened a day-long conference in Washington, DC of 125 Buddhist leaders to discuss Buddhism and civic activism in the United States. The conference identified climate change and the environment, education and peace and disarmament as popular priorities.

### Cultural institutions

The Min-On Concert Association is a subsidiary of the Soka Gakkai established in 1963. It claims to sponsor over 1100 concerts each year.
The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum was founded in 1983. It houses collections of western and oriental art, and has participated in exchanges with museums around the world.