Tsunesaburo Makiguchi is best known as the founder of Soka Gakkai, the association of lay members of the Nichiren Shoshu sect of Buddhism that has grown to number more than ten million followers throughout the world, including some 200,000 Nichiren Shoshu of America adherents in the United States. But Makiguchi had spent a lifetime as an educator, developing his "value creating" educationai philosophy, before he founded Soka Gakkai. In the 1930s he proposed educational reforms that were fully as revolutionary as those advanced by his American counterpart John Dewey. He is one of Japan's most significant yet perhaps least recognized educators. Makiguchi said that Japan's educational system was haphazard, unplanned, fragmented, and useless. Convinced that the pursuit and creation of values are the ultimate purpose of life, he proposed a "value creating" educational system. Defining the three greatest values in life as goodness, beauty, and gain, Makiguchi held that through education people should increase their ability to create values and thus find happiness.

From the Japanese word meaning "to create value," this book presents a fresh perspective on the question of the ultimate purpose of education. Mixing American pragmatism and the Buddhist philosophy of respect for all life, the goal of Soka education is the lifelong happiness of the learner. Rather than offering practical classroom techniques, this book speaks to the emotional heart of both the teacher and the student. With input from philosophers and activists from several cultures, it advances the conviction that the true purpose of education is to create a peaceful world and to develop the individual character of each student in order to achieve that goal. This revised edition contains four new chapters that further elaborate on how to unlock self-motivated learning and how to empower the learner to make a difference in their communities and the world.

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) was one of Japan's most significant educators, who in the 1930's proposed educational reforms that were as revolutionary as those advanced by his American counterpart, John Dewey. Makiguchi's staunch opposition to rote memorization, his emphasis on the creative potential of every student, and his call for greater involvement of community members in the total educational process are some of the ideas that are currently being broached in Western discussions about education. After an absence of many years, Makiguchi's ideas appear in print again at a time when the reassessment and revitalization of our educational system has become a topic of national focus and debate.

This book fills an existing gap within the practice of global citizenship education by offering Asian perspectives. In this book, Soka or value-creating education developed by the Japanese educators, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) and Daisaku Ikeda (b. 1928) is compared to the ideas of the Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948). This study of their respective thoughts and movements has a significant bearing on the three domains of learning within the global citizenship education conceptual dimensions of UNESCO – the cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral. This book deftly combines theoretical discussions with themes and suggestions for practice and future research.

With special reference to Japan.