He survived the devastation of World War II as a teenager, which he said left an indelible mark on his life and fueled his quest to solve the fundamental causes of human conflict. Ikeda was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1928, to a family of seaweed farmers. : 5 Ikeda is the founding president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the world's largest Buddhist lay organization, which claims to have approximately 12 million practitioners in 192 countries and territories, more than 1.5 million of whom reside outside of Japan as of 2012. He served as the third president and then honorary president of the Soka Gakkai, the largest of Japan's new religious movements.
Daisaku Ikeda ( 池田 大作, Ikeda Daisaku, 2 January 1928 – 15 November 2023) was a Japanese Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and nuclear disarmament advocate.
