page_title: Soka Gakkai International
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Soka Gakkai International / History
caption_attribution_description: English: SGI-USA Chicago Culture Center (Soka Gakkai International)
context_page_description: Soka Gakkai International is an international Nichiren Buddhist movement founded in 1975 by Daisaku Ikeda, as an umbrella organization of Soka Gakkai, which declares approximately 12 million adherents in 192 countries and territories as of 2017, more than 1.5 million of whom reside outside of Japan as of 2012. It characterizes itself as a support network for practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism and a global Buddhist movement for "peace, education, and cultural exchange."
  SGI is also a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 1983.
context_section_description: The Soka Gakkai International (SGI) was formed at a world peace conference of Nichiren Buddhists on January 26, 1975, on the island of Guam. Representatives from 51 countries attended the meeting and chose Daisaku Ikeda, who served as third president of the Japanese Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, to become the SGI's founding president.
   The SGI was created in part as a new international peace movement, and its founding meeting was held in Guam in a symbolic gesture referencing Guam's history as the site of some of World War II's bloodiest battles, and proximity to Tinian Island, launching place of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
  The Soka Gakkai's initial global expansion began after World War II, when some Soka Gakkai members married mostly American servicemen and moved away from Japan. Expansion efforts gained a further boost in 1960 when Daisaku Ikeda succeeded Jōsei Toda as president of the Soka Gakkai. 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 2000, Uruguay honored the 25th anniversary of the SGI's founding with a commemorative postage stamp. The stamp was issued on October 2, the anniversary of SGI President Ikeda's first overseas journey in 1960.
  In January 2015, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo reported that the SGI had been nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, as confirmed by a Nobel Peace Laureate.
  In May 2015, the SGI-USA was one of the organizing groups for the first-ever Buddhist conference at the White House.
  In June 2015, the SGI-Italy was recognized by the Italian government with a special accord under Italian Constitution Article 8, acknowledging it as an official religion of Italy and eligible to receive direct taxpayer funding for its religious and social activities. It also recognizes the Soka Gakkai as a "Concordat" (It: "Intesa") that grants the  religions status in "a special 'club' of denominations consulted by the government in certain occasions, allowed to appoint chaplains in the army –  a concordat is not needed for appointing chaplains in hospitals and jails –  and, perhaps more importantly, to be partially financed by taxpayers' money." Eleven other religious denominations share this status.
caption: An SGI center in Chicago
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