SGI and the New Horizon of Peacebuilding Through Empathy

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

INPS Japan (Tokyo)– Wars in Europe and the Middle East, the chain of climate disasters, and the hollowing out of international cooperation — the world is shrouded in overlapping crises. “Peace,” more urgent than ever, now appears as a distant ideal. Yet amid this age of fragmentation, one international Buddhist network is offering a new model that connects moral authority with civic action: Soka Gakkai International (SGI).

Founded in 1930 by Japanese educators Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda, Soka Gakkai began as a movement dedicated to humanistic education. Rejecting the nationalism of their time, they taught that true patriotism lies not in serving the state, but in serving humanity. The price of conviction was high: Makiguchi, the first president, died in prison in 1944; Toda, the second president, survived wartime imprisonment. Yet their ordeal became the foundation for an unshakable postwar belief in peace, human rights, and the dignity of life.

Today, SGI — established in 1975 as the international organization of Soka Gakkai — functions both as a faith-based organization (FBO) and as a civic international actor.
Unlike traditional religious institutions, its activities are not bound by doctrine but grounded in an ethic of coexistence and dialogue. Its guiding principle is clear: lasting peace begins with the inner transformation of the human heart.

From Doctrine to Diplomacy

After the war, Soka Gakkai evolved from a religious reform movement into a civic philosophy of human revolution — the idea that an individual’s inner transformation can renew society.
This concept redefined faith as a form of public virtue rather than a closed set of dogmas.

Today, SGI operates in 192 countries and territories, collaborating with the United Nations and numerous NGOs on nuclear disarmament, education for sustainable development, and human rights.
Its activities exemplify a form of ethical cooperation that transcends both religion and national interest.

Since 2009, SGI has worked through INPS Japan to partner with journalists worldwide, supporting independent reporting on nuclear abolition, climate change, interfaith dialogue, and the SDGs.
Articles published in multiple languages on nuclear-abolition.com and sdgs-for-all.net treat journalism not merely as information transmission, but as a tool for peacebuilding.

At the heart of this initiative lies the Buddhist ethic of “shared suffering” — the determination to feel another’s pain as one’s own, and to act from understanding.
Through journalism that gives voice to the voiceless, SGI seeks to expand a global circuit of empathy.

The Power of Empathy in an Age of Cynicism

What may seem like idealism has, in fact, proven effective in practice.
SGI’s philosophy of peace is distinctive in viewing peace not as the result of political negotiation, but as a cultural and psychological process.

As multilateralism falters, SGI seeks to redefine empathy as political capital.
In its advocacy for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), SGI promotes grassroots dialogues that convey the human reality of nuclear suffering rather than the logic of deterrence.
Through exhibitions and youth exchanges, a new perspective — human security instead of “nuclear deterrence” — has begun to take root in societies worldwide.

SGI’s founding president Daisaku Ikeda once said, “To devalue even a single life is to wound all humanity.”
This conviction also underlies SGI’s engagement in movements for abolishing the death penalty and resisting structural violence.
Its philosophy holds that any form of security achieved at the expense of human dignity ultimately hollows out peace itself.

Interfaith Diplomacy and the Ethics of Listening

In October 2025, SGI Vice President Hirotsugu Terasaki joined representatives of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Hinduism at the Vatican’s international conference “Dare Peace,” organized by the Catholic Community of Sant’Egidio.

_{^{“Peace begins with the transformation of the human heart. Interfaith cooperation is not symbolic — it’s a method for changing history,” said Terasaki.}}

His message resonated with the appeal of Pope Leo XIV, who urged people to “resist the arrogance of power and listen to the cries of the poor and of the earth.”
Both voices share a view of dialogue not as a performance of tolerance, but as a practice of mutual responsibility.
SGI extends this approach beyond interreligious engagement to cooperation with the United Nations, universities, and civil society organizations.

Turning Information into a Moral Commons

The partnership between SGI and INPS Japan is grounded in the recognition that peace requires not only political agreements but also an infrastructure of empathy.Their multilingual online platforms have become a kind of “archive of peace culture,” documenting the conscience of our time.

From African youth climate actions to renewable energy projects in Asian villages and nonviolence education in classrooms, these reports chronicle grassroots practices that quietly rebuild trust amid the noise of today’s information age.
Rejecting sensationalism, this journalism seeks to restore depth, context, and credibility to public discourse.

As Kevin Lin of INPS North America observes:

_{^{“Peace journalism isn’t idealism. It’s another form of realism in a world that has forgotten empathy.”}}

The Politics of Moral Leadership

The origins of SGI are inseparable from Japan’s twentieth-century tragedies — state oppression, war, and the devastation of nuclear weapons. Yet those memories were not transformed into cynicism but into an ethic of solidarity.

In an age when democracy is shaken and exclusionary nationalism grows, SGI’s path demonstrates that moral authority can be built not through coercion but through conscience.
SGI seeks no political power; instead, it embodies a form of “soft resilience” — long-term cooperation and trust grounded in shared human values — offering a model of civic diplomacy.

The Quiet Power of Hope

SGI’s efforts are devoid of spectacle, yet their endurance signals a profound trend in a world undergoing a reordering of global systems.
As states lose moral imagination, non-state actors — faith communities, youth, citizens, and alternative media — are redrawing the contours of solidarity.

One young SGI member put it simply:

_{^{“We may not change the world overnight, but we can prevent it from losing its conscience.”}}

In that quiet statement lies the essence of SGI’s peace movement: to transform humanity’s shared suffering into shared hope.
For SGI, peace is not the endpoint of diplomacy, but a daily practice born of individual choice and empathy.

INPS Japan