Greeting

Since its founding, Soka University has focused on nurturing "global citizens" who put value creation into practice under the student-first philosophy, based on Founding Spirit shown by the founder, Daisaku Ikeda. To date, Soka University has responded to the changing times by establishing and reorganizing faculties and departments, and has developed into a comprehensive university with faculties (commuting and correspondence courses), a graduate school, and a women's junior college, with a total of over 100,000 graduates.

As a pillar of our commemorative projects for our 50th anniversary (2021), we have renamed the Soka Education Research Institute to the "Ikeda Research Institute for Soka Education" and have been working to build a network of researchers and disseminate educational and research results through events such as the Global Citizenship Education Symposium. The international community is currently facing constant global issues such as climate change and natural disasters, as well as conflicts that have led to humanitarian crises due to confrontation and division. In this situation, we would like to vigorously advance our efforts to become a center for global citizenship education, based on the philosophy of Soka education, which places the dignity of life as a primary priority, and through collaborative research with institutions and organizations that share the same ideals.

This year, too, Soka University and Soka Women’s College College aim to cultivate individuals who will contribute to world peace and prosperity, and we, the faculty and staff, will continue the tradition of "students first" established by our founder, striving to create the ideal campus.

Soka University was founded in 1971 with Founding Spirit" Be the highest seat of learning for humanistic education," "Be the cradle of a new culture" and "To be a fortress that protects the peace of mankind." Since then, we have been nurturing "global citizens" who face social issues both at home and abroad head-on and create value with the aim of resolving them. With divisions and conflicts intensifying in the international community due to the prolonged Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and the Islamic organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, we believe that the role of the "global citizens" that our university aims to become is becoming increasingly important.

Last year, the university ranked 6th in the internationality category (2nd in the Tokyo metropolitan area) in the "THE Japan University Rankings 2023," steadily advancing the initiatives set out in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Top Global Creation Support Program." The university has academic exchange agreements with 255 universities in 67 countries and regions around the world, and has developed into a global campus where students with diverse values and backgrounds can talk and learn from each other. Students are also doing well, with 12 students from the university's Law School (including graduates) passing the bar exam, bringing the total number of successful candidates since the university's founding to 448.

Furthermore, the students demonstrated the fruits of their daily efforts in a variety of fields, achieving outstanding results, including first place in an off-campus business contest, fourth place in the women's individual division at the World Baton Twirling Championships, and four students passing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs professional employee recruitment exam.