• A New Humanism

• Buddhism The First Millennium (with Burton Watson (Tr.) )

• Choose Dialogue (with Majid Tehranian)

• Choose Life (with Arnold Toynbee)

• Choose Peace (with Johan Galtung)

• Dawn After Dark (with René Huyghe)

• Flower Of Chinese Buddhism (with Burton Watson (Tr.) )

• On Being Human: Where Ethics, Medicine and Spirituality Converge

• Planetary Citizenship: Your Values, Beliefs and Actions Can Shape A Sustainable World (with Hazel Henderson)

• Search For a New Humanity (with Josef Derbolav)

• The Human Revolution (12 volumes)

• The Living Buddha. An Interpretive Biography (with Burton Watson (Tr.) )

• The Way of Youth: Buddhist Common Sense for Handling Life's Questions (with Duncan Sheik)

• Unlocking The Mysteries Of Birth And Death…And Everything in Between. A Buddhist View of Life

Current President of Soka Gakkai (Nichiren Shoshu), peace advocate, educator, poet and writer.
 

Born in 1928 in Tokyo, Japan. Childhood dogged by poverty and ill health. Left school at age 12 but continued to read and write on his own.

Was introduced to Soka Gakkai, a Nichiren Buddhist Tradition movement group (1947) upon meeting Josei Toda, the second President of the Soka Gakkai movement. Worked as an editor in his publishing company and subsequently became the trusted aide in both his business and in the organization. In 1960, two year's after Toda's death, he succeeded him to become the third president of Soka Gakkai.

He is instrumental in establishing various institutions related to peace, culture and education, all reflecting Buddhist principles, both domestically and internationally, including Soka University, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum; the Min-On Concert Association; and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. He has since traveled widely in pursuit of peace and has met with leading scholars, activists, ordinary citizens, and world leaders. He has received 39 honorary degrees and honorary professorships in 14 universities as recognitions for his wide and varied contributions in a range of fields, mainly in culture, education and peace. His humanitarian endeavors in a range of fields had earned him numerous awards, including the United Nations Peace Award, National Order of the Southern Cross of the Republic of Brazil, Honorary Cross of Science and the Arts from the Austrian Ministry of Education, Medal of the Grand Officer of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture, World Poet Laureateship from the World Poetry Society, International Tolerance Award of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award.

In 1975, he became the first president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a position he still holds. In 1979, he resigned as third Soka Gakkai president. A prolific writer and poet, he has published works in Japanese and 25 other languages on subjects ranging from Buddhist philosophy to children's stories.