This is the final version of the "What is SGI?" post. We have two previous versions here and here. This one is going up locked - no comments will be permitted. If you have something important to say, make a post on the main board - we permit everyone to make new posts. So in the interest of focus and brevity, here it is.

SGI definition

SGI stands for Soka Gakkai International - it represents the colonial empire¹ of the Soka Gakkai, a Japanese religious cult with deep pockets² and political influence aplenty³ in Japan, where it is widely feared and loathed⁴ as a notorious and past-and-potentially-future dangerous cult.⁵ Since 1960, SGI has been dominated by the personality of Daisaku Ikeda, a short,⁶ fat, misshapen⁷ little troll⁸ of a man, possessed of insatiable greed,⁹ base and carnal appetites,¹⁰ and lust for power,¹¹ fame,¹² and fortune.¹³ Ikeda originally intended to take over Japan¹⁴ and rule as its monarch¹⁵ and from there, take over the world.¹⁶ As late as 1987, SGI members in the USA believed that, within 20 years,¹⁷ everyone in the world¹⁸ would be converted to the Nichiren Shoshu religion. Originally an official lay organization of established Japanese Nichiren "Buddhist" temple Nichiren Shoshu, the Soka Gakkai had taken advantage of Nichiren Shoshu's venerable history, long tradition of priestcraft, and its plum (and gorgeous) site located in the foothills of Mt. Fuji, to claim a noble and ancient lineage and avoid the stigma of being classified as one of Japan's "New Religions,"¹⁹ the strange and peculiar little religions that sprang up by the thousands²⁰ in post-Pacific War Japan, leading to the the phrase "rush hour of the gods"²¹ among academics.

SGI practice

The basic practice of SGI consists of chanting a magic spell called "daimoku", which is Japanese for "great incantation" ("Nam-myoho-renge-kyo") to a mass-produced magic scroll, called "gohonzon", or "great object of worship" (a mass-produced xeroxed scroll of a centuries-dead Nichiren Shoshu high priest's calligraphy). The gohonzon must be purchased through SGI; although arguably better gohonzon images can be downloaded and printed from the Internet, SGI insists that its membership buy exclusively from them.²² The purchase of this mass-produced scroll is accompanied by a joining ceremony which used to include a life-long vow to remain an SGI member.²³ Now, though, this expectation is made clear later via the standard indoctrination that takes place during SGI's in-home meetings and lectures, and through articles in SGI publications.²⁴ The SGI membership also serves as a captive market²⁵ for its weekly newspaper, monthly magazine, and other publications, including a long list of books ghost-written in Ikeda's name and printed via numerous vanity presses paid for with SGI members' donations²⁶ and sold exclusively to SGI members through SGI's own bookstores. SGI study meetings are based on these Ikeda-based sources.²⁷ All SGI members are expected to participate and have their own purchased copies for reference.²⁸

ISSUES

"(T)here are countless Buddhist teachers on the planet with equally impressive credentials — some more so, actually — but no one is spending money like a drunken sailor seeing to it they are all similarly 'honored.' It makes Ikeda look vain and cheap, and if you all had genuine respect for the man as a spiritual teacher (and assuming he is not, in fact, vain and cheap) SGI would stop doing stuff like this. YOU ought to be worried that Ikeda is vain and cheap. A genuine Buddhist teacher would tell you that you transformed yourself. The fact that you think Ikeda did something for you reveals he is a second-rate (if that) teacher. The more you praise him, the more obvious it is that he’s not worthy of the praise. No Buddhist teacher I have ever worked with would allow his name to be associated with a purchased 'honor.' I’m not making “claims” about Ikeda. I’m pointing to what he is doing publicly and saying it’s creepy, it’s un-Buddhist, and it makes SGI look bad."²⁹

SGI's troubling financial aspect

SGI is widely recognized as one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the world.³⁰ The SGI's inexplicably limitless financial resources (especially given a membership that is typically poorer than average, less educated than average, and more marginally employed than average);³¹ muscular efforts to avoid, at all costs, government audit³² and oversight in Japan (where such investigation has been proposed); as well as its supreme executive Ikeda's (and his predecessor Josei Toda's) long-rumored ties to Japan's yakuza organized crime syndicates have given rise to the widespread suspicion that the actual purpose of the SGI, the reason for its existence, is to launder the proceeds from Japan's underground, organized crime economy.
SGI rejects financial transparency. The membership has no say in how SGI spends their donations; SGI members are typically told that their location is operating at a deficit to encourage them to donate more and so that they will feel they have no rights in how their local organization is administered. SGI frequently invests in purchases of luxurious real estate properties of dubious purpose - the titles are held by the Soka Gakkai organization in Japan, which decides what will be purchased and divested without the SGI membership's knowledge or input. The SGI members are typically told of a purchase after it has been completed; they have no say in the decision or any details.
SGI holds a massive fine art masterpiece portfolio, less than a tenth of which can be displayed in SGI's Fuji Art Museum at a single time - the rest is stored in the basement. During the period when Ikeda was buying up fine art masterpieces to the tune of eye-popping sums, often paid for with suitcases full of cash, to such an extent that his vanity purchases inflated fine art prices worldwide, the Japanese government was investigating the huge increase in Japanese fine art purchases as not expressions of art appreciation, but as a way to secretly move money and evade taxes. Money laundering, in other words.
Another form of money laundering is real estate properties. The SGI's real estate portfolio contains luxury mansions and actual castles and is all owned and controlled by the Soka Gakkai in Japan. Any SGI members who ask how their donations are used are told that the local organization does not donate enough to pay for its center (where there is one), so all the donations are forwarded to the national HQ, which cuts checks to keep the lights on. That's a hell of a business model, to maintain properties that are ostensibly uniformly losing money. This "business model" means that the local members will not only feel guilty for not paying their own way; they won't insist on having a vote in deciding how their center will be used and administered. If the national HQ is paying all the expenses; if the facility is a "gift from Sensei" or a "gift from Japan" or a "gift from the Japanese members", there's no room for the local members to start demanding decision-making ability over that center.

SGI's fixation on education

SGI owns numerous schools, including Soka University in southern California; has endowed numerous "Ikeda Institutes" at small colleges and universities to promote Daisaku Ikeda; and has purchased hundreds of honorary doctorates to honor Daisaku Ikeda.

Soka University: The Definitive Resource

Focus on promotion of guru Daisaku Ikeda

Paying for honors and accolades for Daisaku Ikeda is one of SGI's primary organizational activities; there are streets, parks, statues, monuments, and buildings across the world, all named after Daisaku Ikeda. Within Buddhism, taking credit for a gift or donation is considered a severe ethical violation; this sort of self-promotion using members' sincere donations is considered scandalous in the extreme and would be a huge embarrassment within any conscientious Buddhist organization.

SGI only enriches itself

SGI does not contribute to charity or provide any charitable aid to any of the communities in which it takes advantage of religious tax exemption for its real estate investments and members' donations, or to any of the members themselves, who are told they need to fix all their own problems themselves via chanting. The Soka Gakkai's and SGI's assets are considered Daisaku Ikeda's own personal possessions to do with as he pleases.

Disconnect between advertising and reality

Although SGI promotes itself as a benevolent association dedicated to activism for world peace and self-development, its own materials show a very different focus. SGI's own publications, songs, organization, and rhetoric display an unseemly and repellent obsession with Daisaku Ikeda, who is treated as a god and can never be wrong (and he needs your money). SGI members speak lovingly of "Sensei", often in hushed, reverent tones, and refer to him constantly as their "mentor in life", even though almost none of them have met him or even set eyes upon him.

A military-flavored colonizing religion

SGI adopted the Japanese Soka Gakkai's martial attitude, military-style organization based on age and gender, and focus on "winning" and "victory", all antithetical to the concept of world peace as "people of all walks and backgrounds living together in harmony" and more in line with "when we take over, we'll enforce peace and everyone will obviously want to fall into line and like it and want it". No different from any other intolerant religion, in other words, from Catholicism to Evangelical Christianity to Islam. Personal development within SGI consists of proselytizing, attending meetings, and donating money. Conformity is strongly indoctrinated, along with never doubting or questioning the leadership, particularly Ikeda.

A falsified image of a deteriorated and decrepit guru

Although Daisaku Ikeda has not been seen in public or filmed since April 2010, the Soka Gakkai and SGI are still producing content that suggests that not only is The Great Man still lucid and insightful, but that he remains active in running his cult of personality. The still photos these organizations have released show an elderly man with a vacant expression, who can neither stand, focus on the camera, nor smile, who is mostly photographed privately with his wife, otherwise only with top SGI leaders.

Replacing genuine families with the cult facsimile

The SGI members are encouraged to regard Daisaku Ikeda as their "Father" and the SGI as their "true family".

A predatory organization

SGI indoctrinates its membership to become active salespersons for the SGI and to always be on the lookout for people in transition who will be more vulnerable to the cult sales pitch, which is virtually identical to a multi-level marketing come-on or Ponzi scheme recruitment. SGI promises happiness, faith-healing, and financial prosperity the same way most Christian organizations do (see "Prosperity Gospel"), with the same lack of results.

Confirmation bias as its basis

SGI members are taught that, by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, they can transform their lives and their circumstances through "changing their karma". If something good happens, it is attributed to the chanting; if something bad happens, the members are blamed for not chanting enough, not adulating Ikeda enough, not attending enough meetings or donating enough money, being too sympathetic to other religious doctrines, and for simply having "bad karma". Victim-blaming all around, in other words, while the efficacy and validity of the SGI organization and practice must never be questioned.

A toxic broken system and a failed community

Also, SGI has a rule that members are not to lend money to each other; plus, in practice, members are strongly advised to never help each other, as that will slow the afflicted person's "working through their karma" and end up prolonging their suffering. The predictable result of this is that SGI members tend to be/become very self-centered, even cruel.
Members who feel unhappy or frustrated are advised to "seek guidance" from SGI leaders. This involves many of the same elements as confession, and many former SGI members have recounted how, after being assured of strict confidentiality, everyone in SGI knew what had been discussed in their latest "guidance session" within a couple of weeks. Gossip is a constant problem; SGI leaders routinely tell each other the SGI members' personal details which were revealed in confidence.

Promotion of Daisaku Ikeda is the SGI's primary activity

Daisaku Ikeda is presented as the world's foremost and most ideal "mentor" for all people for all time; SGI promotes him via quotes presented as "guidance" and "encouragement", as well as through its own publications. These are widely considered to be ghost-written, as Ikeda does not speak or write in any language other than Japanese (and thus can't control any translations), and are so very general and vague as to be of no practical use whatsoever - SGI members are supposed to "find value" in them by imagining something meaningful for themselves in these banal canards and clichéd platitudes. Ikeda is touted as "the world's foremost authority on Nichiren Buddhism" and "the supreme theoretician" on the basis of his top rank as dictatoruler of this authoritarian, top-down, Ikeda-dominated cult of personality; Ikeda has no earned credentials of any kind. His formal schooling ended when he dropped out of community college in his first semester. Yet SGI promotes itself as "True Buddhism", holds up Ikeda as the supreme teacher and leader for the world, and disdains and denigrates all the other sects of Buddhism, displaying an intolerance many consider inimical with genuine Buddhism.

Conformity takes the form of imitating "Sensei"

SGI members are exhorted that their purpose in life is to adopt Ikeda Sensei's priorities and vision and do whatever they can to make these reality; they are expected to find complete happiness and fulfillment in internalizing Ikeda's goals and objectives and making these the focus of their lives. Within SGI, it is commonplace to see rallying cries of "Become Shinichi Yamamoto!" and "Reveal your true identity as Shinichi Yamamoto!", that being Ikeda's idealized fictional self in the self-glorifying hagiography book series, "The Human Revolution" and "The New Human Revolution", which all SGI members are expected to buy, read, and internalize. These books extoll the greatness of the youthful Ikeda (as "Shinichi Yamamoto"), who embodies all the virtues, strengths, and merits that SGI finds most useful and wants all its members to adopt of their own volition. Rather than being dictated to the membership, these are presented in story form, with the protagonist Shinichi Yamamoto described in the way SGI wants the members to emulate and imitate.

Nepotism

Nepotism is widely practiced within the Soka Gakkai; those leaders who have a personal connection of some sort with Daisaku Ikeda rise far and fast, and his two remaining sons are top-ranking vice-presidents, despite having no independent accomplishments other than having been born into Ikeda's family.

Contempt for local cultural norms

A Japanese religion for Japanese people, SGI originally developed the strongest followings in its international colonies located in the countries with the largest Japanese expat populations: Brazil and the USA. Propagation was originally Japanese to Japanese. Even today, Japanese cultural norms are an unchangeable aspect to the SGI's internal culture; past attempts to change these in order to better fine-tune the SGI to the norms and needs of the host countries have been ruthlessly suppressed and stamped out. No elections are ever permitted within SGI, which promotes itself as a "Buddhist democracy"; all leaders are appointed by higher-ups in closed-door sessions which the members are not allowed to observe, contribute to, or approve. In the USA, people of Japanese ancestry have typically been considered to have superior insight and understanding of SGI doctrines; when Soka Gakkai members and leaders visit from Japan, they are considered to uniformly have superior understanding and to be the experts over local non-Japanese members, even those of decades more experience in practice. The flow of respect and acclaim goes only one way: Toward Japan and the Japanese. All the SGI holidays commemorate something that happened in Japan, typically involving Ikeda; even the SGI Women's Day commemorates Ikeda's wife's birthday. Even those SGI members in the international colonies who have decades more experience are not considered to have anything valuable to teach the Japanese, not even their experience of practicing with SGI in a non-Japanese country. The Japanese are the teachers and experts; everyone else is in an inferior, subordinate position as "apprentices" who can only learn from them and must always defer to them. In SGI-USA, people of Japanese ancestry and those married to someone of Japanese ancestry have always had a clear advantage in being appointed to leadership positions. Until just a few years ago, the top national leadership position was held by a Japanese man exported from Japan for that explicit purpose; even now, as in the other international colonies where the host country population includes significant numbers of Japanese expats and people of Japanese ethnicity, a much higher proportion of members and especially leaders are of Japanese ethnicity than the proportion of Japanese and part-Japanese people in the population would predict.

Declining membership

Membership numbers in the USA in particular have dropped precipitously since the Ikeda cult's excommunication from Nichiren Shoshu; this is likely due to the SGI organization's increasing focus on adulating, promoting, and worshiping its International President Daisaku Ikeda. When Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated Ikeda and his cult of personality, they withdrew their permission for them to use Nichiren Shoshu doctrines. In creating new doctrines to qualify as an independent religion (in order to not lose their religious exemptions and protection from government meddling), the SGI chose to focus almost exclusively on "immortalizing" and "eternalizing" Daisaku Ikeda, changing their focus from original founder Nichiren, Nichiren's writings ("Gosho", or "great writings"), and the calligraphic object of worship ("gohonzon") to a single-minded fixation on the concept of "master and disciple" (which was modified into "teacher and disciple" or "teacher and student" before becoming finalized as "mentor and disciple", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense the way they use it), with the objective of creating a clone army consisting of people all over the world devoting themselves to becoming Ikeda's idealized imaginary self, "Shinichi Yamamoto". This has proven to be quite unpopular.

How to officially resign from SGI-USA (and SGI-UK)

Check out our sister subs, /SGICultRecoveryRoom and Ex-Soka Gakkai/SGI: Surviving & Thriving and /NichirenExposed for help in understanding the basic problems with everything Nichiren, the cult experience, and moving forward into independent life. See SGIWhistleblowers subreddit earliest posts for a listing by year, on a constantly-being-updated basis.
Note: Anonymous report originally here:

user reports:
1: This is misinformation

THIS is how SGI rolls.

If you're wondering who Kurokoma is he was a Yakuza boss from the Flower Capital and Hyogoro's rival. He was the primary cause of the Mountain God Incident by putting a bounty on the white boar. He wanted to use it to destroy the Hyogoro family. After the Mountain God Incident he is never mentioned again not even after Hyogoro is arrested. Denjiro instead became the Yakuza boss of the Flower Capital. So what happened to him? I believe Kurokoma is Hyogoro, that he is Hyogoro's alternate personality.
I personally found the character intriguing and wanted to see if he secretly appeared in the story already. I looked up the kanji in the name for clues and came up with "Black Horse." The first thing that came to mind was Hakuba which was Cavendish's alternate personality. Then it clicked that Hyogoro was described as a true knight of the chivalrous old ways similar to Cavendish who is seen as a white knight.
The wiki points out that Hyogoro resembles the Kongōrikishi two wrathful guardians at the entrance of Buddhist temples. In chapter 935 Hyogoro's stance does indeed resemble the statues. I think this also hints at a second personality. Since he hasn't popped up I think Hyogoro has learned to fully suppress him.
The obvious question is how no one knew Hyogoro and Kurokoma were the same person. Maybe similar to Hakuba his face changes or he could've worn a mask. Also his wife could of helped to keep it a secret.
Another big question is why Kurokoma would essentially attack himself. I believe there is big payoff for the twist. There is a manifestation of the Kongorikishi that combines the two into one. I think Kurokoma wanted to merge with Hyogoro to become a stronger being. Using the Mountain God to destroy the Hyogoro family was overkill it would have also destroyed the capital. I think the point was to force Hyogoro into the merge to gain the power in order to stop the Mountain God. I think Hyogoro will undergo the merge (maybe even getting back his old physique Lao G style) to help take out Kaido. Another question that pops up is why he didn't do it sooner maybe he was afraid he would unleash a monster into the world.

I'm remaking this post because I didn't leave enough room in the comments for all the footnotes I'm working on. You can see the original post with all the comments here.

SGI definition

SGI stands for Soka Gakkai International - it represents the colonial empire¹ of the Soka Gakkai, a Japanese religious cult with deep pockets² and political influence aplenty³ in Japan, where it is widely feared and loathed⁴ as a notorious and past-and-potentially-future dangerous cult.⁵ Since 1960, SGI has been dominated by the personality of Daisaku Ikeda, a short,⁶ fat, misshapen⁷ little troll⁸ of a man, possessed of insatiable greed,⁹ base and carnal appetites,¹⁰ and lust for power,¹¹ fame,¹² and fortune.¹³ Ikeda originally intended to take over Japan¹⁴ and rule as its monarch¹⁵ and from there, take over the world.¹⁶ As late as 1987, SGI members in the USA believed that, within 20 years,¹⁷ everyone in the world¹⁸ would be converted to the Nichiren Shoshu religion. Originally an official lay organization of established Japanese Nichiren "Buddhist" temple Nichiren Shoshu, the Soka Gakkai had taken advantage of Nichiren Shoshu's venerable history, long tradition of priestcraft, and its plum (and gorgeous) site located in the foothills of Mt. Fuji, to claim a noble and ancient lineage and avoid the stigma of being classified as one of Japan's "New Religions,"¹⁹ the strange and peculiar little religions that sprang up by the thousands²⁰ in post-Pacific War Japan, leading to the the phrase "rush hour of the gods"²¹ among academics.

SGI practice

The basic practice of SGI consists of chanting a magic spell called "daimoku", which is Japanese for "great incantation" ("Nam-myoho-renge-kyo") to a mass-produced magic scroll, called "gohonzon", or "great object of worship" (a mass-produced xeroxed scroll of a centuries-dead Nichiren Shoshu high priest's calligraphy). The gohonzon must be purchased through SGI; although arguably better gohonzon images can be downloaded and printed from the Internet, SGI insists that its membership buy exclusively from them.²² The purchase of this mass-produced scroll is accompanied by a joining ceremony which used to include a life-long vow to remain an SGI member.²³ Now, though, this expectation is made clear later via the standard indoctrination that takes place during SGI's in-home meetings and lectures, and through articles in SGI publications.²⁴ The SGI membership also serves as a captive market²⁵ for its weekly newspaper, monthly magazine, and other publications, including a long list of books ghost-written in Ikeda's name and printed via numerous vanity presses paid for with SGI members' donations²⁶ and sold exclusively to SGI members through SGI's own bookstores. SGI study meetings are based on these Ikeda-based sources.²⁷ All SGI members are expected to participate and have their own purchased copies for reference.²⁸

ISSUES

"(T)here are countless Buddhist teachers on the planet with equally impressive credentials — some more so, actually — but no one is spending money like a drunken sailor seeing to it they are all similarly 'honored.' It makes Ikeda look vain and cheap, and if you all had genuine respect for the man as a spiritual teacher (and assuming he is not, in fact, vain and cheap) SGI would stop doing stuff like this. YOU ought to be worried that Ikeda is vain and cheap. A genuine Buddhist teacher would tell you that you transformed yourself. The fact that you think Ikeda did something for you reveals he is a second-rate (if that) teacher. The more you praise him, the more obvious it is that he’s not worthy of the praise. No Buddhist teacher I have ever worked with would allow his name to be associated with a purchased 'honor.' I’m not making “claims” about Ikeda. I’m pointing to what he is doing publicly and saying it’s creepy, it’s un-Buddhist, and it makes SGI look bad."²⁹

SGI's troubling financial aspect

SGI is widely recognized as one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the world.³⁰ The SGI's inexplicably limitless financial resources (especially given a membership that is typically poorer than average, less educated than average, and more marginally employed than average);³¹ muscular efforts to avoid, at all costs, government audit³² and oversight in Japan (where such investigation has been proposed); as well as its supreme executive Ikeda's (and his predecessor Josei Toda's) long-rumored ties to Japan's yakuza organized crime syndicates have given rise to the widespread suspicion that the actual purpose of the SGI, the reason for its existence, is to launder the proceeds from Japan's underground, organized crime economy.
SGI rejects financial transparency. The membership has no say in how SGI spends their donations; SGI members are typically told that their location is operating at a deficit to encourage them to donate more and so that they will feel they have no rights in how their local organization is administered. SGI frequently invests in purchases of luxurious real estate properties of dubious purpose - the titles are held by the Soka Gakkai organization in Japan, which decides what will be purchased and divested without the SGI membership's knowledge or input. The SGI members are typically told of a purchase after it has been completed; they have no say in the decision or any details.
SGI holds a massive fine art masterpiece portfolio, less than a tenth of which can be displayed in SGI's Fuji Art Museum at a single time - the rest is stored in the basement. During the period when Ikeda was buying up fine art masterpieces to the tune of eye-popping sums, often paid for with suitcases full of cash, to such an extent that his vanity purchases inflated fine art prices worldwide, the Japanese government was investigating the huge increase in Japanese fine art purchases as not expressions of art appreciation, but as a way to secretly move money and evade taxes. Money laundering, in other words.
Another form of money laundering is real estate properties. The SGI's real estate portfolio contains luxury mansions and actual castles and is all owned and controlled by the Soka Gakkai in Japan. Any SGI members who ask how their donations are used are told that the local organization does not donate enough to pay for its center (where there is one), so all the donations are forwarded to the national HQ, which cuts checks to keep the lights on. That's a hell of a business model, to maintain properties that are ostensibly uniformly losing money. This "business model" means that the local members will not only feel guilty for not paying their own way; they won't insist on having a vote in deciding how their center will be used and administered. If the national HQ is paying all the expenses; if the facility is a "gift from Sensei" or a "gift from Japan" or a "gift from the Japanese members", there's no room for the local members to start demanding decision-making ability over that center.

SGI's fixation on education

SGI owns numerous schools, including Soka University in southern California; has endowed numerous "Ikeda Institutes" at small colleges and universities to promote Daisaku Ikeda; and has purchased hundreds of honorary doctorates to honor Daisaku Ikeda.

Soka University: The Definitive Resource

Focus on promotion of guru Daisaku Ikeda

Paying for honors and accolades for Daisaku Ikeda is one of SGI's primary organizational activities; there are streets, parks, statues, monuments, and buildings across the world, all named after Daisaku Ikeda. Within Buddhism, taking credit for a gift or donation is considered a severe ethical violation; this sort of self-promotion using members' sincere donations is considered scandalous in the extreme and would be a huge embarrassment within any conscientious Buddhist organization.

SGI only enriches itself

SGI does not contribute to charity or provide any charitable aid to any of the communities in which it takes advantage of religious tax exemption for its real estate investments and members' donations, or to any of the members themselves, who are told they need to fix all their own problems themselves via chanting. The Soka Gakkai's and SGI's assets are considered Daisaku Ikeda's own personal possessions to do with as he pleases.

Disconnect between advertising and reality

Although SGI promotes itself as a benevolent association dedicated to activism for world peace and self-development, its own materials show a very different focus. SGI's own publications, songs, organization, and rhetoric display an unseemly and repellent obsession with Daisaku Ikeda, who is treated as a god and can never be wrong (and he needs your money). SGI members speak lovingly of "Sensei", often in hushed, reverent tones, and refer to him constantly as their "mentor in life", even though almost none of them have met him or even set eyes upon him.

A military-flavored colonizing religion

SGI adopted the Japanese Soka Gakkai's martial attitude, military-style organization based on age and gender, and focus on "winning" and "victory", all antithetical to the concept of world peace as "people of all walks and backgrounds living together in harmony" and more in line with "when we take over, we'll enforce peace and everyone will obviously want to fall into line and like it and want it". No different from any other intolerant religion, in other words, from Catholicism to Evangelical Christianity to Islam. Personal development within SGI consists of proselytizing, attending meetings, and donating money. Conformity is strongly indoctrinated, along with never doubting or questioning the leadership, particularly Ikeda.

A falsified image of a deteriorated and decrepit guru

Although Daisaku Ikeda has not been seen in public or filmed since April 2010, the Soka Gakkai and SGI are still producing content that suggests that not only is The Great Man still lucid and insightful, but that he remains active in running his cult of personality. The still photos these organizations have released show an elderly man with a vacant expression, who can neither stand, focus on the camera, nor smile, who is mostly photographed privately with his wife, otherwise only with top SGI leaders.

Replacing genuine families with the cult facsimile

The SGI members are encouraged to regard Daisaku Ikeda as their "Father" and the SGI as their "true family".

A predatory organization

SGI indoctrinates its membership to become active salespersons for the SGI and to always be on the lookout for people in transition who will be more vulnerable to the cult sales pitch, which is virtually identical to a multi-level marketing come-on or Ponzi scheme recruitment. SGI promises happiness, faith-healing, and financial prosperity the same way most Christian organizations do (see "Prosperity Gospel"), with the same lack of results.

Confirmation bias as its basis

SGI members are taught that, by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, they can transform their lives and their circumstances through "changing their karma". If something good happens, it is attributed to the chanting; if something bad happens, the members are blamed for not chanting enough, not adulating Ikeda enough, not attending enough meetings or donating enough money, being too sympathetic to other religious doctrines, and for simply having "bad karma". Victim-blaming all around, in other words, while the efficacy and validity of the SGI organization and practice must never be questioned.

A toxic broken system and a failed community

Also, SGI has a rule that members are not to lend money to each other; plus, in practice, members are strongly advised to never help each other, as that will slow the afflicted person's "working through their karma" and end up prolonging their suffering. The predictable result of this is that SGI members tend to be/become very self-centered, even cruel.
Members who feel unhappy or frustrated are advised to "seek guidance" from SGI leaders. This involves many of the same elements as confession, and many former SGI members have recounted how, after being assured of strict confidentiality, everyone in SGI knew what had been discussed in their latest "guidance session" within a couple of weeks. Gossip is a constant problem; SGI leaders routinely tell each other the SGI members' personal details which were revealed in confidence.

Promotion of Daisaku Ikeda is the SGI's primary activity

Daisaku Ikeda is presented as the world's foremost and most ideal "mentor" for all people for all time; SGI promotes him via quotes presented as "guidance" and "encouragement", as well as through its own publications. These are widely considered to be ghost-written, as Ikeda does not speak or write in any language other than Japanese (and thus can't control any translations), and are so very general and vague as to be of no practical use whatsoever - SGI members are supposed to "find value" in them by imagining something meaningful for themselves in these banal canards and clichéd platitudes. Ikeda is touted as "the world's foremost authority on Nichiren Buddhism" and "the supreme theoretician" on the basis of his top rank as dictatoruler of this authoritarian, top-down, Ikeda-dominated cult of personality; Ikeda has no earned credentials of any kind. His formal schooling ended when he dropped out of community college in his first semester. Yet SGI promotes itself as "True Buddhism", holds up Ikeda as the supreme teacher and leader for the world, and disdains and denigrates all the other sects of Buddhism, displaying an intolerance many consider inimical with genuine Buddhism.

Conformity takes the form of imitating "Sensei"

SGI members are exhorted that their purpose in life is to adopt Ikeda Sensei's priorities and vision and do whatever they can to make these reality; they are expected to find complete happiness and fulfillment in internalizing Ikeda's goals and objectives and making these the focus of their lives. Within SGI, it is commonplace to see rallying cries of "Become Shinichi Yamamoto!" and "Reveal your true identity as Shinichi Yamamoto!", that being Ikeda's idealized fictional self in the self-glorifying hagiography book series, "The Human Revolution" and "The New Human Revolution", which all SGI members are expected to buy, read, and internalize. These books extoll the greatness of the youthful Ikeda (as "Shinichi Yamamoto"), who embodies all the virtues, strengths, and merits that SGI finds most useful and wants all its members to adopt of their own volition. Rather than being dictated to the membership, these are presented in story form, with the protagonist Shinichi Yamamoto described in the way SGI wants the members to emulate and imitate.

Nepotism

Nepotism is widely practiced within the Soka Gakkai; those leaders who have a personal connection of some sort with Daisaku Ikeda rise far and fast, and his two remaining sons are top-ranking vice-presidents, despite having no independent accomplishments other than having been born into Ikeda's family.

Contempt for local cultural norms

A Japanese religion for Japanese people, SGI originally developed the strongest followings in its international colonies located in the countries with the largest Japanese expat populations: Brazil and the USA. Propagation was originally Japanese to Japanese. Even today, Japanese cultural norms are an unchangeable aspect to the SGI's internal culture; past attempts to change these in order to better fine-tune the SGI to the norms and needs of the host countries have been ruthlessly suppressed and stamped out. No elections are ever permitted within SGI, which promotes itself as a "Buddhist democracy"; all leaders are appointed by higher-ups in closed-door sessions which the members are not allowed to observe, contribute to, or approve. In the USA, people of Japanese ancestry have typically been considered to have superior insight and understanding of SGI doctrines; when Soka Gakkai members and leaders visit from Japan, they are considered to uniformly have superior understanding and to be the experts over local non-Japanese members, even those of decades more experience in practice. The flow of respect and acclaim goes only one way: Toward Japan and the Japanese. All the SGI holidays commemorate something that happened in Japan, typically involving Ikeda; even the SGI Women's Day commemorates Ikeda's wife's birthday. Even those SGI members in the international colonies who have decades more experience are not considered to have anything valuable to teach the Japanese, not even their experience of practicing with SGI in a non-Japanese country. The Japanese are the teachers and experts; everyone else is in an inferior, subordinate position as "apprentices" who can only learn from them and must always defer to them. In SGI-USA, people of Japanese ancestry and those married to someone of Japanese ancestry have always had a clear advantage in being appointed to leadership positions. Until just a few years ago, the top national leadership position was held by a Japanese man exported from Japan for that explicit purpose; even now, as in the other international colonies where the host country population includes significant numbers of Japanese expats and people of Japanese ethnicity, a much higher proportion of members and especially leaders are of Japanese ethnicity than the proportion of Japanese and part-Japanese people in the population would predict.

Declining membership

Membership numbers in the USA in particular have dropped precipitously since the Ikeda cult's excommunication from Nichiren Shoshu; this is likely due to the SGI organization's increasing focus on adulating, promoting, and worshiping its International President Daisaku Ikeda. When Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated Ikeda and his cult of personality, they withdrew their permission for them to use Nichiren Shoshu doctrines. In creating new doctrines to qualify as an independent religion (in order to not lose their religious exemptions and protection from government meddling), the SGI chose to focus almost exclusively on "immortalizing" and "eternalizing" Daisaku Ikeda, changing their focus from original founder Nichiren, Nichiren's writings ("Gosho", or "great writings"), and the calligraphic object of worship ("gohonzon") to a single-minded fixation on the concept of "master and disciple" (which was modified into "teacher and disciple" or "teacher and student" before becoming finalized as "mentor and disciple", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense the way they use it), with the objective of creating a clone army consisting of people all over the world devoting themselves to becoming Ikeda's idealized imaginary self, "Shinichi Yamamoto". This has proven to be quite unpopular.

How to officially resign from SGI-USA (and SGI-UK)

Check out our sister subs, /SGICultRecoveryRoom and Ex-Soka Gakkai/SGI: Surviving & Thriving and /NichirenExposed for help in understanding the basic problems with everything Nichiren, the cult experience, and moving forward into independent life. See SGIWhistleblowers subreddit earliest posts for a listing by year, on a constantly-being-updated basis.
Note: Anonymous report originally here:

user reports:
1: This is misinformation

THIS is how SGI rolls.

I wanna take a look at their designs in the manga and compare them to their mythological counterparts. It's a long one so I won't blame you for skipping it.
Now then, let's go down the list in alphabetical order.
Benzaiten- The Japanese Goddess of everything that flows, including water, music, and words. Often depicted carrying a lute and with a white snake. Benzaiten has 3 separate shrines on Enoshima island dedicated to her and all 3 of them are hot spots for those seeking romance.
Being that she is a goddess who is associated with love and water, couples like to rent swan boats and go paddling through lakes near her shrines hoping that it will strengthen their bonds. But other believe that she will get jealous of those who do and curse them to inevitably break up.
In the manga she is seen wearing a hindu inspired outfit which would probably be representative of the fact that most of her mythos comes from the tales of Sarasvati. There's no white snake, but she does have a long ribbon of white draped loosely around her arms. I'm also kinda hoping that we get a close up on her eyes later and they're snake like. She obviously has the lute and she's pretty flirtatious while chanting "tenchu" with the rest of the gang. So pretty spot on...
and next we have the big boy
Bishamonten- I'm sure most of you guys have looked him up at one point or another since he's one of the fighters in this little series. Based off of the Hindu god Kubera, also known as the Vaisravana, he is the god of fortune in war and battles. He has been associated with authority and dignity. As he is the one who calls out Buddha for being a traitor and having him and his 6 cronies show up to punish him for it, this fits quite well.
The hat, the mask, and his clothes are all similar or even spot on to depictions of him in statues and art. The wheel of fire on his back is also a very common piece of imagery in statues of him as well. But I don't see his staff weapon or a pagoda of any kind. I'm still of the opinion that the Pagoda will be used as some form of shield, but I have no clue as to how they'll incorporate it yet.
Next up, Daikokuten- The God of Great Blackness. His area of good luck is based around commerce, especially in terms of cooking and farming. Often depicted as a large jolly man with a big smile, short stubby legs, and a Mallet. He is also often seen carrying a bag of valuables. This sack, according to legend, is said to contain Wealth, Wisdom, and Patience. 3 things one would have if they were successful farmers. His Mallet is also said to be able to grant any desire should you strike the ground with it 3 times and make a wish.
Daikokuten is also said to have the legendary Wish Granting Jewel. A Jewel which can grants the wishes of its holder, to pacify desires, and bring clear understanding of buddhist law.
So we have the Mallet, the grin (sort of), the stubby legs, a representation of him being "The Great Blackness" since his large outfit is more than likely painted black, and I can only assume that beaded necklace that goes around and connects to some form of cloth is the treasure sack. I kinda like the idea that he's not actually a big fat guy but actually a smaller guy wearing a big heavy set of armor.
Ebisu- Japanese god of Luck, Wealth, and Prosperity. More specifically inclined to be associated with the sea. Many fisherman pray to him for good luck with their fishing. he is most often depicted in a fisherman's outfit and always smiliing.
There is a legend that he was born from Izanagi and Izanami but without arms and legs due to complications with Izanami's health. As a failed attempt at having a child he was cast into the sea where he miraculously grew arms and legs and became the god Ebisu. Not able to fully use his limbs and being partially deaf, a simple job like fishing was about all he was able to do. But he would still be jolly and laugh at his good fortune to be useful to the world in some way. This is why he's known as the laughing god.
So we definitely got the fish motif, fish on head and fish gun (love the fucking fish gun). But I genuinely don't know why he's depicted as a Yakuza thug. The only thing I can think of is that Yakuza have been arrested for poaching fish in the last couple years. They don't have an iron grasp on the fish market or anything like that. They just have a few guys who like to fish and then those guys would hand em off to family who ran restaurants for a smaller price than if they bought it from the market.
The most recent case of this I can find is from an article from september of last year where a yakuza boss would go out fishing as a hobby and then give the illegally caught fish to his wife who ran an izakaya pub. So that's the best guess I have for why Ebisu is a Yakuza thug in this series.
Fukuroukuju- God of Wisdom, Luck, Wealth, Happiness, and Longevity. Often depicted as an old man with a very long head and big white beard. He has a staff in most of his pictures and is associated with either a turtle, a crow, or a deer which are all Japanese symbols of long life. He is also almost always wearing taoist clothing, at least from all the pictures I've seen of him he is.
I tried finding more on him but everything I've found is just a copy paste of his wikipedia article. So I guess he's just not discussed a lot when you speak of the 7 lucky gods. Definitely check out his art depictions though. There are some where is head is gargantuan. Also that bird on his staff looks more like a phoenix than a crow so maybe he's got something to do with rebirth in this manga? I dunno, maybe one of his allies will die and he can resurrect them or something. Also why no beard? I like the big beard.
Anyway...
Hoteison- often depicted as a cheerful buddhist monk with his belly exposed. Hotei is actually part of where the Laughing Buddha came from (the big fat jolly buddha that we're all familiar with.) He is the god of Fortune, Guadian of the Children, and patron of barmen. Again, not a lot to find on him other than his connections with the Budai (fat jolly buddha). He is known to carry a bag with him that is loaded with fortunes for those who believe in his virtues.
His outfit is pretty much spot on. Buddhist attire but it doesn't fit on his torso so he just shows off his belly (though we can't have too many fat guys for some reason so we get ripped Hotei instead). and He does have the Bag over his shoulder. He's also supposed to have a curly mustache but instead has a no mustache goatee. Weird choice but it can work.
And finally we have Jurojin- who is ALSO the god of the elderly and longevity. Guess Japan needed 2 of those since so many people there live a long life. A man of average heigh, depicted wearing taoist clothing as well and often seen with a stag. He is often drawn under a peach tree since chinese taoists believe peaches prolong life. He is also usually known to hold a staff that is connected to a scroll that has the lifespan of all living things written on it.
I'm really confused as to how he is the tallest one here as everything I find on him puts him at a very small height. The tallest I've found him being is 5'9, roughly 182cm. And some articles have him standing at a mere 2'9. The taoist clothing is there and he has the stag skull to represent what is usually a living stag. But I don't see his staff or his scroll anywhere. Maybe he just has the scroll and it's tucked away in his outfit.
Either way he is definitely the furthest depiction from his legends. Which I kinda get since him and Fukurouju are basically the same being even when you look at some of their art. There are a few drawings of Jurojin having that same massive skull that Fukurouju has bug instead of being completely bald he has a small ring of hair connecting from ear to ear and big bushy eyebrows.
So for the most part the majority of them are pretty spot on to their depictions, at least image wise. I look forward to their skills and abilities when they fight. It's a shame Shiva and Raiden gotta get cucked out of their time to shine for this but it's still pretty cool to see some of the workings going on behind the scenes. Either way, this has gone on for way too long and most of you probably stopped reading by now. So I'll shut up.

SGI definition
SGI stands for Soka Gakkai International - it represents the colonial empire¹ of the Soka Gakkai, a Japanese religious cult with deep pockets² and political influence aplenty³ in Japan, where it is widely feared and loathed⁴ as a notorious and past-and-potentially-future dangerous cult^5. Since 1960, SGI has been dominated by the personality of Daisaku Ikeda, a short^6, fat, misshapen⁷ little troll⁸ of a man, possessed of insatiable greed^9, base and carnal appetites^10, and lust for power¹¹ , fame^12, and fortune^13. Ikeda originally intended to take over Japan¹⁴ and rule as its monarch^15, and from there, take over the world^16, and as late as 1987, SGI members in the USA believed that, within 20 years^17, everyone in the world¹⁸ would be converted to the Nichiren Shoshu religion. Originally an official lay organization of established Japanese Nichiren "Buddhist" temple Nichiren Shoshu, the Soka Gakkai had taken advantage of Nichiren Shoshu's venerable history, long tradition of priestcraft, and its plum (and gorgeous) site located in the foothills of Mt. Fuji, to claim a noble and ancient lineage and avoid the stigma of being classified as one of Japan's "New Religions"^19, the strange and peculiar little religions that sprang up by the thousands²⁰ in post-Pacific War Japan, leading to the the phrase "rush hour of the gods"²¹ among academics.
SGI practice
The basic practice of SGI consists of chanting a magic spell called "daimoku", which is Japanese for "great incantation" ("Nam-myoho-renge-kyo") to a mass-produced magic scroll, called "gohonzon", or "great object of worship" (a mass-produced xeroxed scroll of a centuries-dead Nichiren Shoshu high priest's calligraphy). The gohonzon must be purchased through SGI; although arguably better gohonzon images can be downloaded and printed from the Internet, SGI insists that its membership buy exclusively from them.²² The purchase of this mass-produced scroll is accompanied by a joining ceremony which used to include a life-long vow to remain an SGI member.²³ Now, though, this expectation is made clear later via the standard indoctrination that takes place during SGI's in-home meetings and lectures, and through articles in SGI publications.²⁴ The SGI membership also serves as a captive market²⁵ for its weekly newspaper, monthly magazine, and other publications, including a long list of books ghost-written in Ikeda's name and printed via numerous vanity presses paid for with SGI members' donations²⁶ and sold exclusively to SGI members through SGI's own bookstores. SGI study meetings are based on these Ikeda-based sources.²⁷ All SGI members are expected to participate and have their own purchased copies for reference.²⁸

ISSUES

"(T)here are countless Buddhist teachers on the planet with equally impressive credentials — some more so, actually — but no one is spending money like a drunken sailor seeing to it they are all similarly 'honored.' It makes Ikeda look vain and cheap, and if you all had genuine respect for the man as a spiritual teacher (and assuming he is not, in fact, vain and cheap) SGI would stop doing stuff like this. YOU ought to be worried that Ikeda is vain and cheap. A genuine Buddhist teacher would tell you that you transformed yourself. The fact that you think Ikeda did something for you reveals he is a second-rate (if that) teacher. The more you praise him, the more obvious it is that he’s not worthy of the praise. No Buddhist teacher I have ever worked with would allow his name to be associated with a purchased 'honor.' I’m not making “claims” about Ikeda. I’m pointing to what he is doing publicly and saying it’s creepy, it’s un-Buddhist, and it makes SGI look bad." Barbara O'Brien

SGI's troubling financial aspect
SGI is widely recognized as one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the world^29. The SGI's inexplicably limitless financial resources (especially given a membership that is typically poorer than average, less educated than average, and more marginally employed than average)^30; muscular efforts to avoid, at all costs, government audit and oversight in Japan (where such investigation has been proposed); as well as its supreme executive Ikeda's (and his predecessor Josei Toda's) long-rumored ties to Japan's yakuza organized crime syndicates have given rise to the widespread suspicion that the actual purpose of the SGI, the reason for its existence, is to launder the proceeds from Japan's underground, organized crime economy.
SGI rejects financial transparency. The membership has no say in how SGI spends their donations; SGI members are typically told that their location is operating at a deficit to encourage them to donate more and so that they will feel they have no rights in how their local organization is administered. SGI frequently invests in purchases of luxurious real estate properties of dubious purpose - the titles are held by the Soka Gakkai organization in Japan, which decides what will be purchased and divested without the SGI membership's knowledge or input. The SGI members are typically told of a purchase after it has been completed; they have no say in the decision or any details.
SGI holds a massive fine art masterpiece portfolio, less than a tenth of which can be displayed in SGI's Fuji Art Museum at a single time - the rest are stored in the basement. During the period when Ikeda was buying up fine art masterpieces to the tune of eye-popping sums, often paid for with suitcases full of cash, to such an extent that his vanity purchases inflated fine art prices worldwide, the Japanese government was investigating the huge increase in Japanese fine art purchases as not expressions of art appreciation, but as a way to secretly move money and evade taxes. Money laundering, in other words.
SGI's fixation on education
SGI owns numerous schools, including Soka University in southern California; has endowed numerous "Ikeda Institutes" at small colleges and universities to promote Daisaku Ikeda; and has purchased hundreds of honorary doctorates to honor Daisaku Ikeda.
Focus on promotion of guru Daisaku Ikeda
Paying for honors and accolades for Daisaku Ikeda is one of SGI's primary organizational activities; there are streets, parks, statues, monuments, and buildings across the world, all named after Daisaku Ikeda. Within Buddhism, taking credit for a gift or donation is considered a severe ethical violation; this sort of self-promotion using members' sincere donations is considered scandalous in the extreme and would be a huge embarrassment within any conscientious Buddhist organization.
SGI only enriches itself
SGI does not contribute to charity or provide any charitable aid to any of the communities in which it takes advantage of religious tax exemption for its real estate investments and members' donations, or to any of the members themselves, who are told they need to fix all their own problems themselves via chanting. The Soka Gakkai's and SGI's assets are considered Daisaku Ikeda's own personal possessions to do with as he pleases.
Disconnect between advertising and reality
Although SGI promotes itself as a benevolent association dedicated to activism for world peace and self-development, its own materials show a very different focus. SGI's own publications, songs, organization, and rhetoric display an unseemly and repellent obsession with Daisaku Ikeda, who is treated as a god and can never be wrong (and he needs your money). SGI members speak lovingly of "Sensei", often in hushed, reverent tones, and refer to him constantly as their "mentor in life", even though almost none of them have met him or even set eyes upon him.
A military-flavored colonizing religion
SGI adopted the Japanese Soka Gakkai's martial attitude, military-style organization based on age and gender, and focus on "winning" and "victory", all antithetical to the concept of world peace as "people of all walks and backgrounds living together in harmony" and more in line with "when we take over, we'll enforce peace and everyone will obviously want to fall into line and like it and want it". No different from any other intolerant religion, in other words, from Catholicism to Evangelical Christianity to Islam. Personal development within SGI consists of proselytizing, attending meetings, and donating money. Conformity is strongly indoctrinated, along with never doubting or questioning the leadership, particularly Ikeda.
A falsified image of a deteriorated and decrepit guru
Although Daisaku Ikeda has not been seen in public or filmed since April 2010, the Soka Gakkai and SGI are still producing content that suggests that not only is The Great Man still lucid and insightful, but that he remains active in running his cult of personality. The still photos these organizations have released show an elderly man with a vacant expression, who can neither stand, focus on the camera, nor smile, who is mostly photographed privately with his wife, otherwise only with top SGI leaders.
Replacing genuine families with the cult facsimile
The SGI members are encouraged to regard Daisaku Ikeda as their "Father" and the SGI as their "true family".
A predatory organization
SGI indoctrinates its membership to become active salespersons for the SGI and to always be on the lookout for people in transition who will be more vulnerable to the cult sales pitch, which is virtually identical to a multi-level marketing come-on or Ponzi scheme recruitment. SGI promises happiness, faith-healing, and financial prosperity the same way most Christian organizations do (see "Prosperity Gospel"), with the same lack of results.
Confirmation bias as its basis
SGI members are taught that, by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, they can transform their lives and their circumstances through "changing their karma". If something good happens, it is attributed to the chanting; if something bad happens, the members are blamed for not chanting enough, not adulating Ikeda enough, not attending enough meetings or donating enough money, being too sympathetic to other religious doctrines, and for simply having "bad karma". Victim-blaming all around, in other words, while the efficacy and validity of the SGI organization and practice must never be questioned.
A toxic broken system and a failed community
Also, SGI has a rule that members are not to lend money to each other; plus, in practice, members are strongly advised to never help each other, as that will slow the afflicted person's "working through their karma" and end up prolonging their suffering. The predictable result of this is that SGI members tend to be/become very self-centered, even cruel.
Members who feel unhappy or frustrated are advised to "seek guidance" from SGI leaders. This involves many of the same elements as confession, and many former SGI members have recounted how, after being assured of strict confidentiality, everyone in SGI knew what had been discussed in their latest "guidance session" within a couple of weeks. Gossip is a constant problem; SGI leaders routinely tell each other the SGI members' personal details which were revealed in confidence.
Promotion of Daisaku Ikeda is the SGI's primary activity
Daisaku Ikeda is presented as the world's foremost and most ideal "mentor" for all people for all time; SGI promotes him via quotes presented as "guidance" and "encouragement", as well as through its own publications. These are widely considered to be ghost-written, as Ikeda does not speak or write in any language other than Japanese (and thus can't control any translations), and are so very general and vague as to be of no practical use whatsoever - SGI members are supposed to "find value" in them by imagining something meaningful for themselves in these banal canards and clichéd platitudes. Ikeda is touted as "the world's foremost authority on Nichiren Buddhism" and "the supreme theoretician" on the basis of his top rank as dictatoruler of this authoritarian, top-down, Ikeda-dominated cult of personality; Ikeda has no earned credentials of any kind. His formal schooling ended when he dropped out of community college in his first semester. Yet SGI promotes itself as "True Buddhism", holds up Ikeda as the supreme teacher and leader for the world, and disdains and denigrates all the other sects of Buddhism, displaying an intolerance many consider inimical with genuine Buddhism.
Conformity takes the form of imitating "Sensei"
SGI members are exhorted that their purpose in life is to adopt Ikeda Sensei's priorities and vision and do whatever they can to make these reality; they are expected to find complete happiness and fulfillment in internalizing Ikeda's goals and objectives and making these the focus of their lives. Within SGI, it is commonplace to see rallying cries of "Become Shinichi Yamamoto!" and "Reveal your true identity as Shinichi Yamamoto!", that being Ikeda's idealized fictional self in the self-glorifying hagiography book series, "The Human Revolution" and "The New Human Revolution", which all SGI members are expected to buy, read, and internalize. These books extoll the greatness of the youthful Ikeda (as "Shinichi Yamamoto"), who embodies all the virtues, strengths, and merits that SGI finds most useful and wants all its members to adopt of their own volition. Rather than being dictated to the membership, these are presented in story form, with the protagonist Shinichi Yamamoto described in the way SGI wants the members to emulate and imitate.
Nepotism
Nepotism is widely practiced within the Soka Gakkai; those leaders who have a personal connection of some sort with Daisaku Ikeda rise far and fast, and his two remaining sons are top-ranking vice-presidents, despite having no independent accomplishments other than having been born into Ikeda's family.
Contempt for local cultural norms
A Japanese religion for Japanese people, SGI originally developed the strongest followings in its international colonies located in the countries with the largest Japanese expat populations: Brazil and the USA. Propagation was originally Japanese to Japanese. Even today, Japanese cultural norms are an unchangeable aspect to the SGI's internal culture; past attempts to change these in order to better fine-tune the SGI to the norms and needs of the host countries have been ruthlessly suppressed and stamped out. No elections are ever permitted within SGI, which promotes itself as a "Buddhist democracy"; all leaders are appointed by higher-ups in closed-door sessions which the members are not allowed to observe, contribute to, or approve. In the USA, people of Japanese ancestry have typically been considered to have superior insight and understanding of SGI doctrines; when Soka Gakkai members and leaders visit from Japan, they are considered to uniformly have superior understanding and to be the experts over local non-Japanese members, even those of decades more experience in practice. The flow of respect and acclaim goes only one way: Toward Japan and the Japanese. All the SGI holidays commemorate something that happened in Japan, typically involving Ikeda; even the SGI Women's Day commemorates Ikeda's wife's birthday. Even those SGI members in the international colonies who have decades more experience are not considered to have anything valuable to teach the Japanese, not even their experience of practicing with SGI in a non-Japanese country. The Japanese are the teachers and experts; everyone else is in an inferior, subordinate position as "apprentices" who can only learn from them and must always defer to them. In SGI-USA, people of Japanese ancestry and those married to someone of Japanese ancestry have always had a clear advantage in being appointed to leadership positions. Until just a few years ago, the top national leadership position was held by a Japanese man exported from Japan for that explicit purpose; even now, as in the other international colonies where the host country population includes significant numbers of Japanese expats and people of Japanese ethnicity, a much higher proportion of members and especially leaders are of Japanese ethnicity than the proportion of Japanese and part-Japanese people in the population would predict.
Declining membership
Membership numbers in the USA in particular have dropped precipitously since the Ikeda cult's excommunication from Nichiren Shoshu; this is likely due to the SGI organization's increasing focus on adulating, promoting, and worshiping its International President Daisaku Ikeda. When Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated Ikeda and his cult of personality, they withdrew their permission for them to use Nichiren Shoshu doctrines. In creating new doctrines to qualify as an independent religion (in order to not lose their religious exemptions and protection from government meddling), the SGI chose to focus almost exclusively on "immortalizing" and "eternalizing" Daisaku Ikeda, changing their focus from original founder Nichiren, Nichiren's writings ("Gosho", or "great writings"), and the calligraphic object of worship ("gohonzon") to a single-minded fixation on the concept of "master and disciple" (which was modified into "teacher and disciple" or "teacher and student" before becoming finalized as "mentor and disciple", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense the way they use it), with the objective of creating a clone army consisting of people all over the world devoting themselves to becoming Ikeda's idealized imaginary self, "Shinichi Yamamoto". This has proven to be quite unpopular.
Check out our sister subs, /SGICultRecoveryRoom and Ex-Soka Gakkai/SGI: Surviving & Thriving and /NichirenExposed for help in understanding the basic problems with everything Nichiren, the cult experience, and moving forward into independent life. See SGIWhistleblowers subreddit earliest posts for a listing by year, on a constantly-being-updated basis.
Note: Anonymous report:

user reports:
1: This is misinformation

THIS is how SGI rolls.

This is actually the first thing we need on this site, and once we hammer out our OWN definition, I'll put it up in a new stickied post at the very top of the front page - the first thing people see. The links to our sister sites that is currently in that position can go in at the bottom of the "What is SGI, anyhow?" explanation we come up with.
There has been some interest in putting together a book "What Is SGI?" that would include several sections: SGI Runaways/Alumni Experiences, Explanation of SGI's real purpose with documentation; the fallacy of the Ikeda cult based on that fictional "Shinichi Yamamoto" nonsense; how SGI has no connection with REAL Buddhist doctrine, history, tradition, attitude, or the Buddhist community at large; and I'm sure you can think of other stuff, too. If someone is willing to put this together as an ebook (read: as inexpensively as possible), I will include a link to that ebook in this future top stickied post. But I don't think that most people who ask, "So what is SGI, anyhow?" want to read a book. They're probably interested in a short explanation that will satisfy their curiosity, and then after that, if they have further interest, well, there's this site with its interesting commentariat; personal observations and experiences; jovial atmosphere; vast documentation resource; and 3,000+ posts between the three sister sites (SGIWhistleblowers, SGICultRecoveryRoom, and the index by topic site, ExSGISurviveThrive).
So I'll get us started:
1) SGI stands for Soka Gakkai International - it represents the colonial empire of the Soka Gakkai, a Japanese religious cult with deep pockets and political influence aplenty in Japan, where it is widely feared and loathed as a notorious and past-and-potentially-future dangerous cult. Since 1960, SGI has been dominated by the personality of Daisaku Ikeda, a short, fat, misshapen little troll of a man, possessed of insatiable greed, base and carnal appetites, and lust for power, fame, and fortune. Ikeda originally intended to take over Japan and rule as its monarch, and from there, take over the world, and as late as 1987, SGI members in the USA believed that, within 20 years, everyone in the world would be converted to the Nichiren Shoshu religion. Originally an official lay organization of established Japanese Nichiren "Buddhist" temple Nichiren Shoshu, the Soka Gakkai had taken advantage of Nichiren Shoshu's venerable history, long tradition of priestcraft, and its plum (and gorgeous) site located in the foothills of Mt. Fuji, to claim a noble and ancient lineage and avoid the stigma of being classified as one of Japan's "New Religions", the strange and peculiar little religions that sprang up by the thousands in post-Pacific War Japan, leading to the the phrase "rush hour of the gods" among academics.
2) The basic practice of SGI consists of chanting a magic spell called "daimoku", which is Japanese for "great incantation" ("Nam-myoho-renge-kyo") to a mass-produced magic scroll, called "gohonzon", or "great object of worship" (a mass-produced xeroxed scroll of a centuries-dead Nichiren Shoshu high priest's calligraphy). The gohonzon must be purchased through SGI; although arguably better gohonzon images can be downloaded and printed from the Internet, SGI insists that its membership buy exclusively from them. The purchase of this mass-produced scroll is accompanied by a joining ceremony which used to include a life-long vow to remain an SGI member. Now, though, this expectation is made clear later via the standard indoctrination that takes place during SGI's in-home meetings and lectures, and through articles in SGI publications. The SGI membership also serves as a captive market for its weekly newspaper, monthly magazine, and other publications, including a long list of books ghost-written in Ikeda's name and printed via numerous vanity presses paid for with SGI members' donations and sold exclusively to SGI members through SGI's own bookstores. SGI study meetings are based on these Ikeda-based sources. All SGI members are expected to participate and have their own purchased copies for reference.
2a) SGI is widely recognized as one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the world; SGI is not at all financially transparent. The membership has no say in how SGI spends their donations; SGI members are typically told that their location is operating at a deficit to encourage them to donate more and so that they will feel they have no rights in how their local organization is administered. SGI frequently invests in purchases of luxurious real estate properties of dubious purpose - the titles are held by the Soka Gakkai organization in Japan, which decides what will be purchased and divested without the SGI membership's knowledge or input. The SGI members are typically told of a purchase after it has been completed; they have no say in the decision or any details.
2b) SGI holds a massive fine art masterpiece portfolio, less than a tenth of which can be displayed in SGI's Fuji Art Museum at a single time - the rest are stored in the basement. During the period when Ikeda was buying up fine art masterpieces to the tune of eye-popping sums, often paid for with suitcases full of cash, to such an extent that his vanity purchases inflated fine art prices worldwide, the Japanese government was investigating the huge increase in Japanese fine art purchases as not expressions of art appreciation, but as a way to secretly move money and evade taxes. Money laundering, in other words.
2c) SGI owns numerous schools, including Soka University in southern California; has endowed numerous "Ikeda Institutes" at small colleges and universities to promote Daisaku Ikeda; and has purchased hundreds of honorary doctorates to honor Daisaku Ikeda. Paying for honors and accolades for Daisaku Ikeda is one of SGI's primary organizational activities; there are streets, parks, statues, monuments, and buildings across the world, all named after Daisaku Ikeda. Within Buddhism, taking credit for a gift or donation is considered a severe ethical violation; this sort of self-promotion using members' sincere donations is considered scandalous in the extreme and would be a huge embarrassment within any conscientious Buddhist organization.
3) SGI does not contribute to charity or provide any charitable aid to any of the communities in which it takes advantage of religious tax exemption for its real estate investments and members' donations, or to any of the members themselves, who are told they need to fix all their own problems themselves via chanting. The Soka Gakkai's and SGI's assets are considered Daisaku Ikeda's own possessions to do with as he pleases.
4) Although SGI promotes itself as a benevolent association dedicated to activism for world peace and self-development, its own materials show a very different focus. SGI's own publications, songs, organization, and rhetoric display an unseemly and repellent obsession with Daisaku Ikeda, who is treated as a god and can never be wrong (and he needs your money). SGI members speak lovingly of "Sensei", often in hushed, reverent tones, and refer to him constantly as their "mentor in life", even though almost none of them have met him or even set eyes upon him.
5) SGI adopted the Japanese Soka Gakkai's martial attitude, military-style organization based on age and gender, and focus on "winning" and "victory", all antithetical to the concept of world peace as "people of all walks and backgrounds living together in harmony" and more in line with "when we take over, we'll enforce peace and everyone will obviously want to fall into line and like it and want it". No different from any other intolerant religion, in other words, from Catholicism to Evangelical Christianity to Islam. Personal development within SGI consists of proselytizing, attending meetings, and donating money. Conformity is strongly indoctrinated, along with never doubting or questioning the leadership, particularly Ikeda.
6) Although Daisaku Ikeda has not been seen in public or filmed since April 2010, the Soka Gakkai and SGI are still producing content that suggests that not only is The Great Man still lucid and insightful, but that he remains active in running his cult of personality. The still photos these organizations have released show an elderly man with a vacant expression, who can neither stand, focus on the camera, nor smile, who is mostly photographed privately with his wife, otherwise only with top SGI leaders. The SGI members are encouraged to regard him as their "Father" and the SGI as their "true family".
7) SGI indoctrinates its membership to become active salespersons for the SGI and to always be on the lookout for people in transition who will be more vulnerable to the cult sales pitch, which is virtually identical to a multi-level marketing come-on or Ponzi scheme recruitment. SGI promises happiness, faith-healing, and financial prosperity the same way most Christian organizations do (see "Prosperity Gospel"), with the same lack of results. SGI members are taught that, by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, they can transform their lives and their circumstances through "changing their karma". If something good happens, it is attributed to the chanting; if something bad happens, the members are blamed for not chanting enough, not adulating Ikeda enough, not attending enough meetings or donating enough money, being too sympathetic to other religious doctrines, and for simply having "bad karma". Victim-blaming all around, in other words, while the efficacy and validity of the SGI organization and practice must never be questioned.
7a) Also, SGI has a rule that members are not to lend money to each other; plus, in practice, members are strongly advised to never help each other, as that will slow the afflicted person's "working through their karma" and end up prolonging their suffering. The predictable result of this is that SGI members tend to be/become very self-centered, even cruel.
7b) Members who feel unhappy or frustrated are advised to "seek guidance" from SGI leaders. This involves many of the same elements as confession, and many former SGI members have recounted how, after being assured of strict confidentiality, everyone in SGI knew what had been discussed in their latest "guidance session" within a couple of weeks. Gossip is a constant problem; SGI leaders routinely tell each other the SGI members' personal details which were revealed in confidence.
8) Daisaku Ikeda is presented as the world's foremost and most ideal "mentor" for all people for all time; SGI promotes him via quotes presented as "guidance" and "encouragement", as well as through its own publications. These are widely considered to be ghost-written, as Ikeda does not speak or write in any language other than Japanese (and thus can't control any translations), and are so very general and vague as to be of no practical use whatsoever - SGI members are supposed to "find value" in them by imagining something meaningful for themselves in these banal canards and clichéd platitudes. Ikeda is touted as "the world's foremost authority on Nichiren Buddhism" and "the supreme theoretician" on the basis of his top rank as dictatoruler of this authoritarian, top-down, Ikeda-dominated cult of personality; Ikeda has no earned credentials of any kind. His formal schooling ended when he dropped out of community college in his first semester. Yet SGI promotes itself as "True Buddhism", holds up Ikeda as the supreme teacher and leader for the world, and disdains and denigrates all the other sects of Buddhism, displaying an intolerance many consider inimical with genuine Buddhism.
9) SGI members are exhorted that their purpose in life is to adopt Ikeda's priorities and vision and do whatever they can to make these reality; they are expected to find complete happiness and fulfillment in internalizing Ikeda's goals and objectives and making these the focus of their lives. Within SGI, it is commonplace to see rallying cries of "Become Shinichi Yamamoto!" and "Reveal your true identity as Shinichi Yamamoto!", that being Ikeda's idealized fictional self in the self-glorifying hagiography book series, "The Human Revolution" and "The New Human Revolution", which all SGI members are expected to buy, read, and internalize. These books extoll the greatness of the youthful Ikeda (as "Shinichi Yamamoto"), who embodies all the virtues, strengths, and merits that SGI finds most useful and wants all its members to adopt of their own volition. Rather than being dictated to the membership, these are presented in story form, with the protagonist Shinichi Yamamoto described in the way SGI wants the members to emulate and imitate.
10) The SGI's inexplicably limitless financial resources (especially given a membership that is typically poorer than average, less educated than average, and more marginally employed than average); muscular efforts to avoid, at all costs, government audit and oversight in Japan (where such investigation has been proposed); as well as its supreme executive Ikeda's (and his predecessor Josei Toda's) long-rumored ties to Japan's yakuza organized crime syndicates have given rise to the widespread suspicion that the actual purpose of the SGI, the reason for its existence, is to launder the proceeds from Japan's underground, organized crime economy.
11) Nepotism is widely practiced within the Soka Gakkai; those leaders who have a personal connection of some sort with Daisaku Ikeda rise far and fast, and his two remaining sons are top-ranking vice-presidents, despite having no independent accomplishments other than having been born into Ikeda's family.
12) A Japanese religion for Japanese people, SGI originally developed the strongest followings in its international colonies located the countries with the largest Japanese expat populations: Brazil and the USA. Propagation was originally Japanese to Japanese. Even today, Japanese cultural norms are an unchangeable aspect to the SGI's internal culture; past attempts to change these in order to better fine-tune the SGI to the norms and needs of the host countries have been ruthlessly suppressed and stamped out. No elections are ever permitted within SGI, which promotes itself as a "Buddhist democracy"; all leaders are appointed by higher-ups in closed-door sessions which the members are not allowed to observe, contribute to, or approve. In the USA, people of Japanese ancestry have typically been considered to have superior insight and understanding of SGI doctrines; when Soka Gakkai members and leaders visit from Japan, they are considered to uniformly have superior understanding than local non-Japanese members, even those of decades more experience. The flow of respect and acclaim goes only one way: Toward Japan and the Japanese. All the SGI holidays commemorate something that happened in Japan, typically involving Ikeda; even the SGI Women's Day commemorates Ikeda's wife's birthday. Even those SGI members in the international colonies who have decades more experience are not considered to have anything valuable to teach the Japanese, not even their experience of practicing with SGI in a non-Japanese country. The Japanese are the teachers and experts; everyone else is in an inferior, subordinate position as "apprentices" who can only learn from them. In SGI-USA, people of Japanese ancestry and those married to someone of Japanese ancestry have had a clear advantage in being appointed to leadership positions. Until just a few years ago, the top national leadership position was held by a Japanese man exported from Japan for that explicit purpose; even now, as in the other international colonies where the host country population includes significant numbers of Japanese expats and people of Japanese ethnicity, a much higher proportion of members and especially leaders are of Japanese ethnicity than the proportion of Japanese and part-Japanese people in the population would predict.
13) Membership numbers in the USA in particular have dropped precipitously since the excommunication from Nichiren Shoshu; this is likely due to the SGI organization's increasing focus on adulating, promoting, and worshiping its International President Daisaku Ikeda. When Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated Ikeda and his cult of personality, they withdrew their permission for them to use Nichiren Shoshu doctrines. In creating new doctrines to qualify as an independent religion (and thus not lose their religious exemptions and protection from government meddling), the SGI chose to focus almost exclusively on "immortalizing" and "eternalizing" Daisaku Ikeda, changing their focus from Nichiren, Nichiren's writings ("Gosho", or "great writings"), and the object of worship ("gohonzon") to a single-minded fixation on the concept of "master and disciple" (which was modified into "teacher and disciple" or "teacher and student" before becoming finalized as "mentor and disciple", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense the way they use it), with the objective of creating a clone army consisting of people all over the world devoting themselves to becoming Ikeda's idealized imaginary self, "Shinichi Yamamoto". This has proven to be quite unpopular.
I've numbered the paragraphs; go ahead and cite paragraph numbers for rewrites/corrections; feel free to re-order portions of paragraphs and entire paragraphs to make it flow more smoothly along with your own ideas and content. GO!

So how humble is a man who allows a tribute to his fight for justice to be erected in such a public venue? Ikeda’s word is law, as far as members are concerned, and they would never do anything that he didn’t approve of.
http://www.newcity.com/2012/12/06/culture-clash-whats-a-sculpture-honoring-a-controversial-japanese-religious-leader-doing-in-a-chicago-park/
First off, here’s a quote from Rick Ross that seems to contradict any suggested wishy-washy attitude he may have about SGI’s cult status:

If you run a Google search on Soka Gakkai, the fifth entry that pops up is the organization’s page on the website for the Rick A. Ross Institute, a cult awareness nonprofit. I reached Ross at his office in Trenton, New Jersey, as he surveyed the damage from Hurricane Sandy. “In my opinion Soka Gakkai is a destructive cult,” he says. “I have received serious complaints from former members and from family members. Ikeda essentially rules as a totalitarian dictator.”

A little further on, Ross makes the following statement:

But when I told Rick Ross about the sculpture, he was incredulous that SGI was allowed to install a monument commemorating its leader’s “struggle for peace, justice and human rights” in a public park. “How in the heck did they manage to do that?” he asks. “They’ll use that statue as a recruiting tool and as evidence of Ikeda’s respectability.”

Ya think?
A bit of defense from Bill Aiken:

Bill Aiken, Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for SGI-USA, the group’s United States division, was familiar with Ross’ website and wasn’t surprised Ross condemned the movement as a destructive cult. “Cult is a very loaded word,” Aiken says. “We don’t separate people from their families. We don’t make people send their money. We don’t make people slavishly follow a central leader. Members used to aggressively proselytize but we haven’t passed out pamphlets in the street since 1989.”

We’ve had numerous discussions here about what Aiken alleges that SGI doesn’t do, but here are some brief highlights from those conversations:
They do separate people from their families. They’ve convinced their members that the organization is the most important thing in their lives, and that those who don’t take that view are in danger of having their lives suffer. If you don’t practice hard enough, participate in enough meetings, don’t contribute enough, or dedicate yourself to Ikeda properly, you might as well hang it up. And all of that takes valuable time away from your family and non-member friends; that’s justified, because you’re devoting yourself to a better world after all, aren’t you? You spend more and more time with your culty friends, because only they understand the importance of what you’re doing and speak the same language.
They don’t MAKE you spend your money in the sense that there’s someone there with a gun to your head. But what do you call convincing members that they must read “The New Human Revolution,” currently at 24 volumes at $6.99 a pop, or other ghost-written Ikeda titles? What do you call the pressure from leaders to kick in during May contributions? The book store in every SGI Buddhist Center is open after every Prayers for World Peace meeting; and you can barely walk through there because of all the eager shoppers. So much to see! So much to read! So many cool little tschatkes! Who doesn’t want an SGI keyring to display your special and exclusive membership with the bestest organization in the world??
They don’t make people slavishly follow a central leader? Is that something new? During my seven years as a member (2006-2013), there was progressively less and less study of Nichiren’s writings and more and more study of Ikeda’s interpretations of them. I could probably count on both hands the number of times during those years that I actually heard the historical Buddha mentioned. It has become the all-Ikeda/all-the-time show. “Mentor for life” – that certainly sounds pretty “slavish” to me.
Further from Aiken:

So why is Soka Gakkai such a lightning rod for controversy? “Some Buddhist groups are jealous of our success because we’ve grown so big,” Aiken explains. Today there are about ten million members in Japan, roughly one in twelve citizens. There are nearly two million practitioners elsewhere, including 192 countries and territories, with 104 SGI-USA centers throughout the United States. Soka publishes the Seikyo Shimbun, Japan’s third-largest daily newspaper, with a circulation of six million—photos of and articles about the leader appear on every front page. SGI’s worth has widely been reported in the tens of billions, and Ikeda, also a business tycoon, is said to be a billionaire himself.

Well, of course, if you have numbers you must be speaking the truth, right? By our educated estimates, there are probably closer to three million members, not twelve, but let’s not quibble. But with a touted 300,000 members in the US, that means that there’s one center for every 2,885 members; I’m surprised that they aren’t a little more crowded.
Let’s go to “Some Buddhist groups are jealous . . . “ If the focus of those Buddhist groups is just to be YUUUGE, then they’d start marketing themselves a little harder, don’t you think? Or if they wanted to belong to a huge Buddhist group, they could just join SGI; it isn’t difficult. Go to a couple of meeting, fork out some bucks for your gohonzon, have a nice place to put it (the leaders will come to your place to make sure that you have a suitable place of honor for the Xeroxed scroll), and BOOM! You’re a member!
And then there’s this:

According to a 1999 New York Times article, members have been convicted of using wiretapping, arson and bomb threats against religious and political rivals in Japan. In his 2011 book “The Last Yakuza: A Lifetime in the Japanese Underworld,” investigative reporter Jake Adelstein writes that Soka has hired gangsters to intimidate its enemies. Soka’s Controversies website details cases where critics blamed the organization for the alleged murders of a female politician and a priest from a competing Buddhist faction. According to the Times piece, President Ikeda has been accused of numerous crimes ranging from financial misdeeds to rape, but he was only formally indicted once, in 1957 of violating election laws, and he was acquitted.

All I can say is – nice, huh? Isn’t this the mentor you should be following?

Soka Gakkai authorities have vehemently denied these allegations, often blaming them on rival religious and political groups, or have attributed the crimes to mentally unstable members acting of their own accord. “The tabloid media tend to seize on and publicize any such wrongdoing by anyone who has ever been a member of the organization,” says Tokyo-based spokeswoman Joan Anderson. Japanese courts ruled that the murder and rape claims were baseless, and Soka has filed numerous successful libel suits against its accusers, including many journalists.

Oh, here we go! Anyone who criticizes the organization is a member of a rival religious group (i.e., a nasty member of the Temple)? If SGI is the bestest religion evar, why would some of its members be mentally unstable in the first place?