On March 21, 2009, Soka University founder Daisaku Ikeda was conferred an honorary doctorate from University College South of Denmark, the 250th academic honor he has received from universities and academic institutes of the world over the past 34 years.

University College South Rector Soren Vang Rasmussen conferred the degree in recognition of “long service and valuable contribution to research and practice toward the development of Education for Life,” explaining that Soka education has much in common with the strong Danish tradition of “education for life” inspired by N.S.F. Grundtvig, father of the Danish folk high school tradition, and writer and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

Jim Garrison, president of the John Dewey Society and professor of the philosophy of education at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A., also spoke, noting the commonalities between Soka education, which focuses on fostering creative thinking and social contribution, and the ideas of pioneering American educator John Dewey.

Congratulatory messages were sent by Oscar Arias Sanchez, President of Costa Rica, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Danish Minister of Education Bertel Haarder, among others.

Ikeda received his first academic award, an honorary doctorate from Moscow State University, in May 1975. He has since then been recognized for varied contributions to peace and education from institutions around the world, including Peking University, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Ankara University and University of Sydney.

He has engaged in dialogues and authored works in the belief that education is fundamental to peace and social betterment. His conviction took root by his own experience of education as a young man in Japan in the 1930s and 40s, a period in which the education system was an effective means for the Japanese militarist regime to mold docile, unquestioning subjects who were willing to give their lives in the service of the state’s aims. Ikeda lived through the tragedy wrought by such a misguided system, shaping his lifelong quest to direct learning to the service of peace and humanity—a quest that eventually led to his founding of universities in Japan and the U.S., and schools around the world.

Having turned 81 in January, Ikeda—who has also been widely recognized as a peace builder, Buddhist thinker, poet and prolific author—remains very much committed to the task. As he told U.S. economist John Kenneth Galbraith in 2005, “I consider education to be the culminating undertaking of my life.”