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The
Seikyo Press
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The
Seikyo Press building
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The 50th
anniversary of the launch of the Soka Gakkai's daily
newspaper, the Seikyo Shimbun, was marked by a special
function in a Tokyo hotel on January 24, attended by 1,700
people including figures from Japan's business world as well
as representatives from the United Nations and the embassies
of 22 countries. A similar function was held in Osaka on
February 7 and in Fukuoka on February 21.
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The
Seikyo Press's major periodicals
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At the event,
Einosuke Akiya, president of the Soka Gakkai and executive
counselor to the Seikyo Shimbun, presented an outline of the
newspaper's 50-year contribution to the Soka Gakkai's movement
for peace, culture and education based on Nichiren Buddhism.
"The 21st century will be a humanistic age led by the
common people," he stated. "It is the Seikyo
Shimbun's mission--and its pride--to be a newspaper that is
constantly on the side of the ordinary citizen, opening the
path for each individual to explore his or her limitless
potential."
The Seikyo Shimbun was established on April 20, 1951. At that
time, it was a two-page newspaper with a circulation of 5,000
that was published every 10 days. The frequency of publication
increased steadily, to once a week, twice and then three times
a week, until it finally became a daily in July 1965. It was
also expanded to first eight and then 12 pages. Its current
circulation is 5.5 million. It is distributed daily by a vast
network of volunteers, who receive a small stipend for their
work.
The Seikyo Shimbun has a main office in Tokyo, eight regional
offices and 50 local offices throughout Japan. Since 1988 the
paper has been published using a computerized typesetting
system. This allows the completed text to be transmitted
nationwide over digital lines to the 32 locations where it is
printed. The Seikyo Shimbun also has full-time correspondents
in eight major cities around the world: Los Angeles, Boston,
London, Madrid, Lima, Hong Kong, Quezon City and Bangkok.
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The
Seikyo Shimbun editorial room
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The newspaper
promotes ways of confronting the problems and troubles facing
individuals and society as a whole. It strives to spotlight
the limitless potential and creativity of human beings. In
addition, it highlights the activities of the SGI in 163
countries and territories around the world to promote peace,
culture and education. It also offers wide-ranging coverage of
the cultural and educational activities of organizations
affiliated with the SGI and detailed reports of SGI President
Ikeda's activities, especially his dialogues with world
leaders in which he promotes peaceful solutions to the
problems facing humanity in the 21st century.
Publications
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Plaque
honoring past distributors in the Seikyo Press
building
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In addition to the
Seikyo Shimbun itself, the Seikyo Press company also publishes
the Daibyakurenge, a monthly magazine which is the main source
of regular Buddhist study materials and encouragement for Soka
Gakkai members. Founded in July 1949, the magazine currently
has a circulation of 2.8 million. Seikyo Press also publishes
the Graphic SGI (originally the Seikyo Graphic launched in
1959), a color magazine with a circulation of 1.2 million that
introduces SGI activities around the world, as well as a
variety of periodicals for children, young adults and
students. Also published by Seikyo Press are the Nichiren
Daishonin gosho zenshu (the collected writings of Nichiren ),
lectures and study materials, the complete works of SGI
President Ikeda, including his novel The Human Revolution, and
other books. In November 2000, it published the Bukkyo
tetsugaku daijiten (a dictionary of Buddhist terms and
concepts), which features some 19,000 entries--an increase of
8,000 over the previous edition. Other publications cover a
wide range of subjects other than Buddhism, including world
religions, philosophy and science.
Cultural
Projects
The Seikyo Press launched a series of seminars in April 1971
to mark its 20th anniversary. To date, more than 1,000 of
these seminars have been held in a variety of locations
throughout Japan. Attended by a total of some 500,000 people,
they have covered a wide range of themes including human
rights and peace-building, featuring lecturers from various
fields. Also in 1971, a high school scholarship system for
children of the newspaper's distributors was created. More
than 4,000 students have benefited from this scholarship
system. Since 1970, the Seikyo Press has also sponsored annual
writing contests in its bimonthly newspapers for elementary
and junior high school students.
THE
50-YEAR HISTORY
| 1951 |
Apr.
20 First Issue of the Seikyo Shimbun
published. The paper has a two-page format, is
published every 10 days with a circulation of
5,000. |
| 1953 |
Sep.
6 Becomes a weekly paper with a two-page
format. |
| 1954 |
Jan.
27 Regional correspondents are stationed in
major cities. |
| 1955 |
Jun.
1 Distribution network is organized. |
| 1957 |
Aug.
2 Adopts an eight-page format. |
| 1959 |
Jan.
1 Publication of Seikyo Graphic (the
present Graphic SGI) begins. |
| 1965 |
Jul.15
Seikyo Shimbun becomes a daily paper. |
| 1970 |
Sep.
28 New seven-story building with three
basement floors completed. |
| 1971 |
Jan.
1 Seikyo Shimbun adopts a 12-page
format. |
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Apr.
20 Seikyo Scholarship Program established.
Seikyo Public Culture Seminar series
inaugurated. |
| 1982 |
May
25 Seikyo Culture Award established. |
| 1983 |
Jan.
1 Soka Shimpo, newspaper of the Soka
Gakkai youth division, begins publication. |
| 1988 |
Jan.
18 Computerized typesetting system (CTS)
starts operation. |
| 1989 |
Sep.
4 All pages of the Seikyo Shimbun,
including local sections, are produced using
CTS. |
| 1990 |
Jul.
19 10,000th issue published. |
| 1993 |
May
1 Graphic SGI begins publication. |
| 2001 |
Jan.
24 50th anniversary celebrated in Tokyo. |
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