About MPU

Professor Daisaku Ikeda is the Honorary President of Soka Gakkai and President of Soka Gakkai International. Devoted to promoting world peace, educational development and cultural exchange, he is the founder of more than 20 educational and cultural institutions at home and abroad, including the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Soka Schools in Japan, Soka University of America, and so on.

Professor Ikeda firmly believes that human beings can only develop mutual trust and understanding through sincere dialogue. To this end, he has held and published many dialogues with leading political, educational or cultural figures around the world, such as Arnold Toynbee (Choose Life), Jin Yong (Compassionate Light in Asia), Chang Shuhong (The Radiance of Dunhuang), Mikhail Gorbachev (Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century), B. Wilson (Human Values in a Changing World), and Aurelio Peccei (Before It is Too Late). Other books include The Human Revolution, The New Human Revolution, and The Wisdom of the Lotus.

From 1974 to the present, Professor Ikeda has delivered speeches in universities and research institutions in 18 different countries and regions, including Harvard University, Columbia University and Bologna University. He has received more than 300 honorary doctorates and professorships from higher education institutions such as Moscow University, the University of Glasgow, the University of Denver, Peking University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

For his humanitarian endeavours in a range of fields, Professor Ikeda has been the recipient of awards from over 22 countries, including the National Order of the Southern Cross of the Republic of Brazil, the Medal of the Grand Officer of Arts and Letters (France), the Peace and Friendship Cup (China), Knight Grand Cross of the Most Noble Order of the Crown (Thailand), the Order of Merit “Grand Officer” (Italy), the Russian Federation Order of Friendship, and the Hwa-Gwan Order of Cultural Merit (South Korea). In 1983 he received the United Nations Peace Award.

Among the awards Professor Kissinger has received have been the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973; the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation's highest civilian award) in 1977; and the Medal of Liberty (given one time to ten foreign-born American leaders) in 1986.