Polly toynbee daisaku ikeda biography

Not to be confused with Daisuke Ikeda.

Japanese buddhist leader (1928–2023)

Daisaku Ikeda (池田 大作, Ikeda Daisaku, 2 January 1928 – 15 November 2023) was a Japanese Buddhist leader, author, educator and nuclear disarmament advocate.

He served as the third president and then honorary president of the Soka Gakkai, which is considered among the largest of Japan's new religious movements.^[2]: 5, but has also been described as a cult by medias ("Soka Gakkai has many of the markings of a cult"^[3]) and politicians (the French parliamentary commission in 1995).

Ikeda was the founding president of the Soka Gakkai International. Although a claimed Japanese membership of 8.27 million households, recent research and surveys suggest that between 2.5 million and 4 million people - approximately two to three percent of the Japanese population - are active members of Soka Gakkai,^[4] and the organization claims to have approxima