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Daisaku Ikeda was born in Tokyo on 2 January 1928. He is a leading Buddhist philosopher and a prolific writer who has published over 100 works. As well as poetry, he writes on topics related to peace, education and the humancondition. keda's life was fundamentally shaped by his youthful experience of World War II and his elder brother's accounts of the atrocities committed by the Japanese military in China. The search for a means to root out the fundamental causes of human conflict thuse became a driving force in his life from a young age. After the was, Ikeda came to embrace Buddhism through his encounter with Josei toda, leader of the Soka Gakkai lay Buddhist group. In 1960, he succeeded Toda as head of the Soka Gakkai and he has played a central role in the spread the development of Nichiren Buddhism outside Japan. He is currently president of Soka Gakkai nternational (SGI). Ikeda has published one major collection of his poetry in English, Songs from Ny Heart, and many volumes in Japanese. He is founder of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and the Soka education system.